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LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 


PRINCETON, N. J. 


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PURCHASED BY THE 
MRS. ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY CHURCH HISTORY FUND. 





BX 8947 .C2 W52 1927 ne 
Wicher, Edward ATCDUT 13794 
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THE 
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IN CALIFORNIA 
1849-1927 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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THE REV. EDWARD ARTHUR WICHER, D.D: 


—e MW itne> 
JUL 27 927 

nae Xo dorens gent 

PRESBYTERIAN CHUR 


IN CALIFORNIA 
1849-1927 






EDWARD ARTHUR ‘WICHER, D.D. 
Robert Dollar Professor of New Testament Inier pretation in 
San Francisco Theological Seminary 





FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK 


Che Grafton Press 
NEW YORK MCMXXVII 


Copyright, 1927, 
By FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK 


This History has been 
Published by the Order of the 
Synod of California 


IN HONOR OF 
THE PIONEER MINISTERS 


WHO WROUGHT IN THE FIELD OF HOME MISSIONS, WHO 
FREQUENTLY SUFFERED POVERTY, CONTEMPT AND 
LONELINESS, BUT WHO ENDURED AS SEEING HIM 
WHO IS INVISIBLE, THAT THEY MIGHT LAY 
DEEP AND STRONG THE FOUNDATION OF 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD, UPON THE 
PACIFIC COAST 


———— FO 
———————— Er T—o—e 





CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION . : ‘ : : ; : : : ; : ona 
CHAPTER PAGE 
I. THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN CALIFORNIA : , ty ade 
II. AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA : a ; Lat 
LUE HMOW LOURCIAISTORY (IS IVIDED I Gy cnn ee ues ek alge BAL 
IV. THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE . : : : : eh 
VY. First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS . , : ; q Pee 
VI. THE First DECADE: ; i ; : : ‘ i Ene 
VII. THE SEcoND DECADE IN THE NorTH ; : A paris) 
VIII. THE BEGINNINGS oF Los ANGELES AND THE SOUTH .  . 130 

IX. THE REUNION PERIOD AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 
PRESBYTERIES . : F ¢ : : : : ’ ans Ca 
X. THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NORTH TO 1902 . 168 
XI. THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH, 1875-1902 . . .  . 204 
XII. THE UNION WITH THE CUMBERLAND CHURCH . ._. 242 
XIII. EDUCATIONAL WorkK . , : , ; : ; . 246 
XIV. SAN FRANCIscO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY . 4 ; . 269 
XV. THE WoRK OF THE WOMEN . Ents EV Hime witnnay 2e F 
XV Leora NISH EVVORK LIN, CALIFORNIA! vr, fT 2 esau dua) me sr SOR 
XVII. THE ORIENT IN CALIFORNIA . : : ; : : ee 3 
XVIII. PRESBYTERIANS IN NEVADA... > ds yp he a 
ae CHURCH CODA. Wp ol Ueek hua h Guu ar, antibod, palit ota Sly 

APPENDICES 

I. A List OF THE EARLIEST PROTESTANT SERVICES HELD IN 
CALIFORNIA folie aD ose thes Shea gar 

II. A LIsT OF THE Prerernes sheds ireesees PRIOR 
TO THE CLOSE OF 1849 ASE Neen FY Hee ee 350 

III. A List or MINISTERS AND CHURCHES IN Carini IN 
RHECUACERCION (AUGUST EZ9, LSS EN Ceo, Akh es SST 


NDE Xai SN ce ts ati Tetkc etph SMe SR ER EOL “eG nikon ee ehhh art qkel SSS 
Vil 


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A 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE Rey. EDWARD ARTHUR WICHER, D.D. . . 
THE THREE W’s . a 5 : fe : : A 
THE REv. WILLIAM STEWART YOUNG, D.D., LL.D. 
A PAGE OF PRESBYTERIAN WORTHIES . : , 
A PaGE oF MODERATORS . : é 3 ; : 


THE First PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SAN FRANCISCO 
THE Rev. SAMUEL H. WILLEY, D.D., LL.D... 
First PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SAN JOSE . ... 
THE MARYSVILLE CHURCH AND ITs EARLY PASTORS 
CALVARY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SAN FRANCISCO 
Rev. WILLIAM ANDERSON ScoTT, D.D., LL.D .. 
CFENERAL SS) OH NU BIDWELL site dieel «cust cti re ae 
FirsT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SAN RAFAEL . 
Rev. THOMAS FRAsER, D.D. Sitiehi Vi reied ta gma 
First PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Los ANGELES .. 
THE First PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BERKELEY : 
First PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FOWLER . é : 
PUHEREALOGALTO } CHURCH NY Gl). 07) es ie he 
ELAVO GE ASTORS LOF (PALOCALTOj2 9.50) a ah 
THE REv. W. J. CHICHESTER, D.D. ..  . 
PASADENA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH . s ; : 
THE REV. ROBERT FREEMAN, D.D. .. ee bit. 
THE GLENDALE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH . - : 
THE REV. HERBERT Bootu, D.D. : AS al ‘ 
NEw IMMANUEL CHURCH, Los ANGELES . : : 
First CHURCH, REDLANDS . : ; : : . 
First CHURCH, UPLAND Cine Tic kitten i hives 


1X 


Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 
e e 6 


e ° 22 


Ne ee ae 


go 


5 . 124 
. 126 


; LE SQ 

sur 7S 
‘ <nLO7 
‘ <7200 
A 5 else 
: . 206 


° - 210 


i ato 
: . 224 
. weaeo 
3 ee 7 
: Ae, 


x ILLUSTRATIONS 


OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE . : : : 4 F : 7 
SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY .. : 
Rev. WARREN HALL Lanpon, D.D., LL.D. . . . 
OCCIDENTAL BOARD PIONEERS . : A : ; 3 
OCCIDENTAL BOARD GOLD STAR MISSIONARIES . : : 
OCCIDENTAL BOARD PRESIDENTS . : ; : : ; 
LEADERS OF FOREIGN WORK OF THE WOMEN . ; i 
LEADERS OF WOMEN’S HOME MIssiIon WoRK 

THE EARLIER LEADERS OF WOMEN’S HOME Mission WoRK 
PaAciFic District LEADERS . ; ; : : : a 
FirsT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OAKLAND . : é 
THE Rev. Ropert S. DoNALDSOoN, D.D . . .  . 
THE Rev. Guy W. WapdsworTH, D.D. . ‘ : : 
THE First PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HOLLYwoop 

A CoTTaGE IN MoNTA VISTA GROVE 


FACING 
PAGE 


264 
270 
282 
288 
292 
294 
296 
298 
300 
302 
3390 
336 
336 
338 
343 





FOREWORD OF THE SYNOD’S 
COMMITTEE 


The publication of this History of the Presby- 
terian Church in California is very gratifying to the 
Presbyterians of the Pacific Coast. For many years 
the Synod has desired to find the man who could 
set down in clear form the record of its past achieve- 
ment, and could delineate in telling words the ro- 
mance of the pioneer days and the charm of the 
personality of the pioneers themselves. No one 
who has not attempted a similar task can realize 
the vast amount of labor involved in the issuance of 
such a volume. There is first the search for mate- 
rials, then the delicate decision as to the importance 
of the several elements, and finally the composition 
of the book itself. The Synod of California counts 
itself happy in securing the services of Dr. Edward 
A. Wicher, Professor of New Testament Interpre- 
tations in San Francisco Theological Seminary. His 
has been a labor of love well executed. Inasmuch 
as he has received no remuneration for this task the 
Committee on Publication desires to express for the 
Synod its earnest, hearty thanks to the author; and, 
overruling his modest objection, it has insisted on 
placing in the forefront of this book the picture of 
its writer. 

G. A. BRIEGLEB, 
R. S. DONALDSON, 
C. C. STEVENSON, JR. 


Synod’s Committee on Publication. 
San Francisco, 
FEBRUARY 26, 1927. 
xi 





THE 
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
IN CALIFORNIA 

1849-1927 


THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
IN CALIFORNIA, 1849-1927 


INTRODUCTION 


etl. is to be a history of the Presbyterian 
Church in California. It is a great theme, and 
worthy of a noble treatment; for it is the record of 
a mighty church, in one of the fairest and most fruit- 
ful sections of the earth, meeting with problems and 
entering upon a task for which there was no prece- 
dent, contending with conditions oftentimes the most 
adverse, and splendidly victorious in the power of 
the Gospel of the Son of God. The writer is very 
conscious that his abilities are unequal to his theme; 
but inasmuch as this task has been laid upon him 
by his brethren of the Synod of California, to whom 
he has promised to be in subjection in the Lord, and 
for whose judgment on most matters he has a salu- 
tary respect, he has felt it incumbent upon him to 
undertake it and do it as best he may be able, and 
to trust to the charity of his brethren for its recep- 
tion. Indeed, as he has progressed from day to day 
in his knowledge of the men of the Pioneer period 
and of the events which enter into this narrative, he 
has found the writing of this history increasingly a 
labor of love. 


2 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


For there were giants on this Pacific Coast in 
those early days. They endured hunger and thirst 
as they crossed the alkali plains. ‘They suffered the 
ice, the snow, and the winds of the high Sierras to 
chill and temper them, and the blistering heat of 
the summer sands in the still untamed desert to 
bronze and grizzle them. And to a lawless com- 
munity they preached the law of God; to a rabble 
hungry for gold they proclaimed the compassion of 
the heart of Christ. Most of them were young; 
many of them were but striplings in the ministry. 
But so for that matter were the men to whom they 
preached. All of them had a spirit of high adven- 
ture, or they would not have been here. Some of 
them possessed extraordinary powers of vivid lan- 
guage which they used without measure in the de- 
nunciation of sin and Satan. Some were valiantly 
aggressive in their defense of righteousness. Some 
were simply good, brave men, who doggedly held 
their places and, unhonored and almost unknown, 
sought to do their duty and finally died at their 
posts. 

It is indeed a fascinating story. But under the 
pressure of pioneer action men do not always have 
the time or the inclination to chronicle events as they 
occur, and unhappily a good deal that would be 
interesting to us now to know has already been lost 
from human record. 

The following are the chief sources upon which 
the writer has drawn in preparing this history: 


1. The Minutes of the Synod of California. 
There are three sets of these, which are as follows: 


The Minutes of the Synod of the Pacific, which was 


INTRODUCTION 3 


the Old School Synod erected in 1852; those of the 
Synod of Alta California, which was the New School 
Synod, erected in 1857; and those of the Sacramento 
Synod, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 
which was organized in 1860. All of these separate 
bodies were finally united in our present Synod of 
California, as we shall see in the subsequent nar- 
rative. But behind these, and, indeed, dating from 
a time prior to the erection of the Synods, are the 
Minutes of the earliest Presbyteries which finally 
were reorganized in order to form the Synods. For 
instance, we have the Minutes of the Presbytery of 
Sierra Nevada which lie behind those of the Synod 
of Alta California. We have also the Minutes of 
the California Presbytery of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian Church which was organized in 1851. The 
writer has sometimes heard irresponsible gentlemen 
complain of having to listen to the reading of the 
Minutes of a previous meeting of Presbytery, and 
would suggest as a cure for such complaints the in- 
fliction by the court of the penalty of being required 
to read the Minutes of seventy-five years of Synod, 
together with an appropriate amount of Presbyterial 
records. ‘This is no small amount of work, but it is 
the necessary preparation for the writing of such a 
history as the present. Nor is it always dreary read- 
ing, for every once in a while the record is lighted 
up with some most illuminating motion. 

The men who made these early motions are dead, 
and the hands who inscribed these minutes are also 
dead, but these motions determined the course of 
the history of Presbyterianism on the western side of 
the continent. And a good deal concerning the 
personalities of the several churches, as well as of 


4 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the individual members of the ecclesiastical bodies, 
can be discovered from a perusal of these min- 
utes. 

Besides the Minutes of the several Synods there 
are other important sets of early records which are 
still preserved, most valuable among which are 
those of the Session of First Presbyterian Church, 
San Francisco. At the time of the great fire of 
San Francisco, in 1906, when there was no water 
with which to extinguish the flames, the fire depart- 
ment of the city dynamited the buildings on the 
eastern side of Van Ness Avenue, including the old 
wooden structure of the first Church which then 
stood upon the same site as the present building, in 
order, if possible, to prevent the conflagration from 
spreading farther to the west. It was then that the 
late Rev. Theodore F. Burnham, of Vallejo, who 
was an enthusiastic conservator of memorials of 
early Presbyterianism, broke into the First Church 
and rescued the records of the Session, and brought 
them over to the Seminary in San Anselmo, where 
they were deposited for safe keeping. 

2. Next in importance to the records of ecclesi- 
astical courts has been the material collected by the 
Rev. James S. McDonald, D.D., who, by action of 
the Synod of 1904, was appointed official historian 
of the Synod and subsequently was instructed to 
prepare a history. Dr. McDonald labored inde- 
fatigably upon this task for several years and com- 
piled individual narratives of all the early churches 
of the Synod. This material was brought down to 
1912, and while it deals with the details of the work 
of the separate churches and not with the larger 
aspects of the life of the Synod nor with general 


INTRODUCTION 5 


ecclesiastical movements, it is indeed invaluable to 
the present historian. 

3. Ihe files of the Pacific Expositor. It speaks 
volumes for the creative energy of the young church 
upon the coast that in 1860 it undertook the produc- 
tion of a theological magazine which in point of 
excellence would rank along with the Princeton Re- 
view or any other of the leading theological reviews 
of its day. Doubtless its fine quality was chiefly due 
to its editor, the Rev. William Anderson Scott, D.D., 
of whom we shall hear more. But it is very 
significant that a church absorbed in the multifarious 
problems of the exuberant life of the new community 
of the coast should feel that the production of 
theological literature was not only no detriment to 
the practical work of evangelism, but was positively 
essential to it. It is true that the Pacific Expositor 
lasted only three years, when it was submerged by 
the national conflict, but the fact that it was under- 
taken at all and that it contained articles of close, 
vigorous thinking and of genuine literary merit shows 
us something of the depth and virtue of the religious 
life of the pioneer church. 

More important even from the point of view of 
the historian is the file of the Occident, a twelve page 
church paper for the family and the home, which was 
first issued in 1868 and edited by the Rev. James 
Fells, D.D., then pastor of the First Church of Oak- 
land, with whom was associated the Rev. E. B. 
Wadsworth. It was published by Bancroft and 
Company in San Francisco. It would not suffer by 
comparison with any of the papers of Presbyterian- 
ism today. Its editorials were clear. They often 
possessed an incisive quality. The paper had a 


6 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


varied history, depending as it did upon the voluntary 
contributions of its constituents. It was suspended, 
renewed, and finally absorbed in the Interior, when 
the latter paper was under the editorship of Dr. 
Gray. But for the twenty-five years during which 
it served the church on the coast it is a most impor- 
tant source of information. 

There are also the books of pioneer ministers, 
either written contemporaneously with the events they 
described or published as memoirs in the later days 
of the authors. Conspicuous among these are the 
following: 

The Pioneer Pastorate and Times by Rev. Albert 
Williams, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church, of San Francisco. San Francisco, 1882. 

Recollections of Pioneer Work in California by 
the Rev. James Wood. San Francisco, 1878. 

California Pioneer Decade of 1849 of the Presby- 
terian Church. This book contains recollections of 
the Rev. James Wood, edited and enlarged by his 
son, the Rev. James L. Wood. San Francisco, 1922. 

Wadsworth’s Sermons. New York and San 
Francisco, 1869. ‘These sermons were preached in 
Calvary Church, San Francisco, and enable us to get 
the flavor of the Presbyterian pulpit of the day. 

But one cannot write the history of the Presby- 
terian Church without knowing something of the 
other Protestant churches as well. One needs also 
a knowledge of the background of the conditions in 
which the pioneer ministers had to do their work. I 
am largely indebted to “Seven Years Street Preach- 
ing in San Francisco” by the Rev. William Taylor, 
afterwards the famous Missionary Bishop of the 


Methodist Episcopal Church. He laid the founda- 





ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee 









































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































REV. SYLVESTER WoopsribDcE, D.D. 











































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Rev. JAMES WoobDs Rev. ALBERT WILLIAMS 


THE THREE W’S 


av 


a8 


é 





INTRODUCTION 7 


tions of his future greatness when at twenty-eight 
years of age he came to California, an original forty- 
niner, and while San Francisco was still little more 
than a collection of shanties proclaimed the Gospel 
in its sandy streets. The autobiography of Lorenzo 
Waugh is another good source book from a 
Methodist pen. 

5. Nor can one write the history of the church 
without an understanding of the earlier history of 
the State and the nation which lay behind the history 
of the church; and thus I find it necessary for my 
own study at least to endeavor to reconstruct and 
make to live before me the life of California, first 
in the Spanish period and afterwards in the period 
of the American pioneers. For the general history 
of California the author of this volume professes no 
special studies of original sources on his own ac- 
count but is deeply indebted to the standard works 
of Californian history such as those of Bancroft, 
Hittel, and Zoeth Skinner Eldredge. Among works 
of more recent publication he has found most read- 
able and instructive the History of California written 
for the Spanish Period by Charles E. Chapman, and 
for the American Period by Robert Glass Cleland. 
These have been supplemented by many monographs, 
especially those contained in the Quarterly of the 
California Historical Society, and in papers of Call- 
fornia pioneers which have survived. The Bancroft 
Library has been the principal source of manuscript 
materials. 

6. But while one can get from Synodical Minutes 
and similar documents the facts and the statistics of 
the church for almost every year of its history, these 
do not always convey the sense of the living person- 


8 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


alities who made these documents and engaged in 
these events. And it is just here that the work of 
the historian is most important. ‘To make the past 
to live again, to cause the actors of the early days 
to speak again and to speak in their own language, 
to permit their hopes and fears, their aspirations 
and their self-sacrifices, to be seen clearly across the 
gulf that divides those days from these—this has 
been the chief aim of the present book; and it is an 
aim most difficult of achievement. Hence it 1s that 
I have made it a point to talk with the surviving 
pioneers and the oldest members of our churches as 
I have had opportunity; I have tried to gather their 
sense of the conditions in which the church did its 
earliest work, and their feeling about the person- 
alities of the men most active in the past. I cannot 
be too grateful to the accident of circumstances which 
threw me into intimate relations with the late Rev. 
Samuel G. Willey, D.D., LL.D., who was one of the 
earliest Presbyterian pioneers of San Francisco, 
later a minister in the Congregational Church, and 
the vice-president of the University of California. 
At the time of our close intimacy I did not know how 
important to me his recollections might subsequently 
become. ‘There are many things about which I 
would like to question him now. But I can only be 
erateful that I learned as much as I did. Others of 
our leaders in various periods of the past from 
whom I have learned in intimate ways and who have 
now passed from the scenes of their early ministry, 
were the Reverends Theodore F. Burnham, William 
Brown Noble, D.D., Thomas Boyd, D.D., Richard 
Wylie, James S. McDonald, D.D., Arthur Crosby, 
D.D., and William Alexander, D.D., LL.D. Of 








We beR VerwWiUECAMES TEWARTDTSY OUNG<D:D LL.D 
Clerk of the Synod for Thirty-five Years 


ie Tr" pre eee 
‘ a a, — . 


_— Yo 





ce niten Aid iacine: SNARE Tks ban) Sain aie AER S HS eBeS 2 Pree ea ee 
~ ~ ee td iliaas 


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“ Ehae ; ; : ; | 
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+ - : “ge ae ae a date 
7 =; ae 


INTRODUCTION 9 


those still living I hesitate to speak, but there are 
three to whom my debt is so large that I dare not 
refuse them this slight acknowledgment of apprecia- 
tion. These are the Rev. James Curry, D.D., who 
was for a quarter of a century the president of the 
Historical Society of the Synod of California; the 
Rev. James M. Newell, D.D., whose personal 
knowledge of the State includes both the north and 
the south; the Rev. William S. Young, D.D., who 
for exactly half the period of the history of the 
Synod has been its faithful Stated Clerk. In the 
preparation of this work Dr. Young has served me 
in ways too numerous to mention; to him I have been 
indebted at every turn. 

I have also to acknowledge my large indebtedness 
to Miss Julia Fraser, of Oakland, who has supplied 
me with a collection of the letters and other private 
papers of her father, the Rev. Thomas Fraser, who 
was the founder of more of our churches on the 
Pacific coast than any other man; and to Mrs. A. 
W. Foster, of San Rafael, the daughter of the late 
Rev. W. A. Scott, D.D., who has aided me by plac- 
ing at my disposal some valuable papers of her 
father’s and by sharing with me her varied knowl- 
edge of the early days of the church in San Francisco. 


CHAPTER I 


THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN 
CALIFORNIA 


FTER Columbus had discovered America in 
1492 and the Spaniards had made settlements 

at various points in the West Indies and, later on, in 
Panama, the sailors coasted along the shore of the 
main land seeking for a passage through to the 
Indies of the east. In 1519 Cortez landed his small 
army at Vera Cruz and in two years time, according 
to his own statement, he had conquered Mexico, 
which the Spaniards called New Spain. ‘The real 
conquest of Mexico began in 1521, from the city of 
Mexico as a center, and soon the Spanish occupation 
extended to the west coast and the Gulf of Califor- 
nia. The name California was derived from an old 
Spanish romance, ‘‘Las Serras de Esplandian” by 
Ordonez de Montalbo (1510), in which there is 
told the story of beautiful black Amazons who ruled 
an island ‘“‘to the right of the Indies, very near the 
quarter of the terrestrial Paradise.” ‘The use of the 
name California for the newly discovered land to the 
west of Mexico is an indication of the romantic spirit 
in which all the Spanish conquest was undertaken. 
Those were the days in which men dreamed of the 
mystic city of Quivira, where there were mountains 
of gold and islands of pearls, and where the inhabi- 
tants dined from plates of solid gold and silver, 

Io 





‘THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN CALIFORNIA II 


where there was to be found everything most won- 
derful and most splendid. But this was the mind of 
fhesacese and: it. Ponce) dewleeon. searched) for: the 
fountain of perpetual youth, it was because he really 
believed that such a fountain existed. ‘There was 
another great idea which haunted the imagination of 
the navigators of the world for one hundred and 
fifty years; it was the belief that somewhere there 
lay a short northwestern passage from Europe to 
Asia, particularly to the Indies, and much of the dis- 
covery of the new world was due to the endeavor to 
find this passage. These were the motives which 
impelled the Spaniards ever further towards the 
northwest, into the Province of Sonora, into Baja 
California, and along the banks of the Colorado and 
Gila Rivers. 

Meanwhile the British navigators were following 
close in the path of discovery of the Spaniards and 
were soon making discoveries of their own. Thus 
Captain Drake, afterwards Sir Francis Drake, in 
1579, sailed into the Pacific and northward along 
the shores of California until he cast anchor in 
Drake’s Bay, some thirty miles north of the Bay of 
San Francisco. Neither he nor any of his followers 
for nearly two hundred years saw the Bay of San 
Francisco as this name is applied today. But in 
1595 Rodriguez Cermenho, sailing from Panama 
in the San Augustin, found his way into the same 
bay, which he named the Bay of San Francisco. So 
that Drake’s Bay and the Bay of San Francisco were 
one and the same until the time of Portola. Both 
Drake and Cermenho explored the country for 
some little distance back from their landing place, 
but the mountains that lay between them and our 


12 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Bay of San Francisco veiled from them the view of 
the most magnificent harbor on the American coast. 

The next important name in the discovery of Cali- 
fornia is that of Sebastian Viscaino, who, in 1602 
and 1603, discovered the sites of San Diego and 
Monterey. He was a man of immense energy and 
he underwent perils and hardships which would have 
turned back any seaman of less heroic mould. He 
made the first settlements in Baja California. From 
1697 onwards the missionaries of the Jesuit order 
governed Baja California, establishing settlements 
at several points in the peninsula. But it was a land 
without resources; and the methods of the Jesuits 
with the Indians were provocative of constant 
trouble. Beyond the fact that the occupation of Baja 
California opened the way for new explorations to 
proceed into Alta California, the settlement of the 
peninsula has little ultimate significance. In any 
case the rule of the Jesuit order came to an end in 
1768, when its priests were expelled from Mexico 
and their work was transferred to the order of St. 
Francis of Assisi. One consequence of the Jesuit 
occupation in our own time has been the Pious Fund 
which originated in the gifts of various private per- 
sons to a Jesuit treasury in Mexico City for the bene- 
fit of the Californian Missions. After a varied his- 
tory of litigation and diplomatic entanglements this 
fund remains till today a charge of some forty-three 
thousand dollars a year to be paid by the Mexican 
government to the Catholic Archbishop of California 
for Mission work. 

But even down to the time of the transference of 
the Mission authority from the Jesuits to the Fran- 
ciscans, San Francisco was still unknown. There is 


THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN CALIFORNIA 13 


in existence a map of Cabrera Bueno, published in 
1734, which gives a fairly accurate outline of Cali- 
fornia except that the Bay of San Francisco does not 
appear. But the time of discovery came in 1769, 
when Portola and his men were sent in the San Carlos 
and the San Antonio for a more accurate survey of 
the upper coast. He had a long and trying voyage, 
the details of which have no special bearing upon 
the present history. The honor of being the first to 
view the Golden Gate doubtless lbavires to one of 
Portola’s subordinates, a certain Sergeant Ortega, 
commanding the vanguard of the scouts who reached 
it on November 1, 1769. Later he explored the 
eastern shore of the bay and probably entered the 
Alameda creek, but the discovery was made with 
no enthusiasm. The crew of the San Antonio was 
almost entirely out of provisions, and many of them 
were sick of the scurvy. He tells us that he did 
not linger there ‘nor see anything worthy of de- 
scription save only a labyrinth of bay and channels 
which inundate the territory.” The site of the pres- 
ent City of San Francisco appeared simply as a waste 
of sand dunes, with a white cliff upon the northern 
side. This discovery, however, was destined to have 
early consequences in the history of Spanish settle- 
ment. 

It is now time to turn to one of the greatest names 
in the history of the Spanish Period of our State, 
that of Junipero Serra, who, in the spring of 1766, 
when he was already in his fifty-fifth year, was ap- 
pointed president of the Missions. He was a man 
of great ability, of indomitable energy and of pro- 
found piety. 

At this point it is necessary in our narrative to 


14 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


turn again for a little time to Mexico City and take 
up the account of the strong, energetic viceroy of 
New Spain who came into office in 1771. Antonio 
Bucareli was a man of impeccable honor and great 
breadth of vision, both of which qualities were none 
too common among the Spanish bureaucrats of the 
period. He was able to see the realities of the situa- 
tion and to make his plans to correspond. He it was 
who procured a new instrument, a reglamento, for 
the government of the Californias, whereby the 
method of the administration of Alta California was 
determined for the remainder of the duration of 
Spanish rule; and it was he who commissioned Cap- 
tain Juan Bautista de Anza to open a land route 
from Mexico into the new province. This route was 
explored and charted in 1774. Both of these acts 
had permanent significance for the new province. A 
new stability was now given to the Spanish adminis- 
tration, so that the explorers of other nationalities, 
particularly the British, as represented by the Hud- 
son Bay Company, were deterred from encroaching 
upon the sphere of influence of the Spanish State, 
and thus this territory was preserved intact against 
the time of the advent of the Americans. Then the 
opening of the land route by Anza permitted the 
sending of a large body of colonists and considerable 
herds of domestic animals, amounting in all to more 
than a thousand head, into the new province, which 
would have been impossible under the conditions of 
travel on the sea. Considering the hardships of the 
route, which lay partly through desert and partly 
through the snow of the mountains, upon which sub- 
sequently scores of American frontiersmen lost their 
lives, it was remarkable that Anza conducted his 


THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN CALIFORNIA 15 


expedition of 1775 with such success. Starting from 
Mexico with two hundred and forty people, he 
arrived in Alta California with two hundred and 
forty-four. Eight babies were born while the party 
was in transit. One mother lost her life in child- 
birth and three others died of fatigue and exposure. 
But the descendants of these people were the chief 
element of the population of Spanish California, and 
their cattle were the progenitors of the later herds. 
They traveled out of Mexico by the valley of the 
Santa Cruz river, down the Gila River to its junc- 
tion with the Colorado, across the Colorado desert, 
and over the San Jacinto mountains to San Diego. 
Among those who accompanied Anza on this expe- 
dition was Lieutenant Moraga, who later, in 1776, 
founded the colony and the Mission of San Francisco 
de Asis. 

Meanwhile, on August 5, 1775, the Bay of San 
Francisco was thoroughly explored by Juan Manuel 
de Ayala, who was voyaging under instructions of 
Bucareli. Hitherto it had been known as “the 
Estuary.” From this time forward it was known by 
its present name, which had been the earlier designa- 
tion of the body of water we now call Drake’s Bay 
and which was now transferred to the newly dis- 
covered harbor. Ayala and his assistant, Canizares, 
have given us the first account of the actual entrance 
through the Golden Gate and the first description of 
the bay itself. His impressions contrast oddly with 
those of Portola recorded six years previously. He 
says of it that it was 


the best he had seen in those seas from Cape Horn north, 
. .. not one port, but many, with a single entrance. . 
The said bay is a good port, not only because of the fine pro- 


16 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


portions which it offers to the sight, but also because there 
is no scarcity of good water, wood and stone for ballast. 
Its climate, though cold, is entirely healthful, and is free 
from the annoying daily fogs experienced at Monterey. 
To all these advantages must be added the best of all, which 
is that the heathen Indians of the port are so faithful in their 
friendship and so docile in their disposition that I was greatly 
pleased to receive them on board. 


Such is in outline the story of the exploration of 
Alta California in the Spanish Period. We must 
now briefly turn our attention to the Missions planted 
by the Padres, through which the government hoped 
to govern, and the Missionaries hoped to Christian- 
ize, and both hoped to civilize, the Indian population 
of the province. There were altogether twenty-one 
of these Missions, as follows: San Diego de Aycala 
was founded by Junipero Serra in 1769. It was 
erected at a short distance from San Diego Bay, 
on the banks of the river whose waters in some 
seasons disappeared beneath the sand. It was the 
parent Mission of them all, and its adobe ruins 
and olive trees are still seen as a memorial of the 
first white settlement in Alta California. Under the 
presidency of Serra, between 1769 and his death in 
1784, nine missions were established. Next in order 
after the San Diego Mission was that of San Carlos 
de Borromeo, sometimes called Carmelo, near 
Monterey. San Gabriel Archangel, near Los 
Angeles, followed in 1771, and in three or four years 
became the most prosperous of all the Missions. 
Then came San Antonio de Padua, in 1771; San Luis 
Obispo de Tolosa, in 1772; San Juan Capistrano, in 
1776, which was designed by Serra to afford a needed 


1 Quoted from Chapman: A History of California—The Spanish 
Period, p. 280. 


THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN CALIFORNIA 17 


halting-place between San Gabriel and San Diego; 
San Francisco de Asis Dolores, in 1776; Santa Clara, 
in 1777; San Buenaventura, in 1782. 

The name of Serra is doubtless the one of all the 
names of Spanish pioneers best known to Califor- 
nians. Serra was fortunate in having a very read- 
able biographer in the person of his lifelong friend 
and fellow worker, Francisco Palou. Serra’s suc- 
cessor in the presidency of the province was not so 
fortunate, and consequently is not so well known to 
us. But it has seemed to modern historians who 
have investigated the period that Fermin Francisco 
de Lasuen was not unworthy to stand in this great 
succession. ‘he Presidio of Santa Barbara had been 
established in 1782 but was still without a Mission 
until Lasuen, in 1786, in his sixty-sixth year, founded 
it himself. One year later he dedicated La Purisima 
Concepcion, thus completing the series of Missions 
along the Santa Barbara channel. Santa Cruz and 
Soledad followed in 1791. His power remained in 
advanced age; for in 1797, when he was seventy- 
seven years old, he founded in one year the follow- 
ing four Missions: San Jose, San Juan Bautista, San 
Miguel al Gloriosismo Principe Archangel, and San 
Fernando Rey, near Los Angeles. The following 
year he founded San Luis Rey. 

Four Missions were undertaken later: Santa Ynez 
Virgen e Martyr, in 1804; San Rafael, in 1817; and 
San Francisco Solano de Sonoma, in 1823. The 
attempt to found a Mission at Santa Rosa, in 1827, 
ended in failure. 

Such were the Missions established by Spanish 
pioneers before the American people, with the 
Protestant churches, entered the land. ‘They have 


18 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


been variously evaluated. Some writers have de- 
scribed their founders as saints and heroes, who com- 
bined in themselves all virtues, powers and graces. 
Others have represented them as being mere slave 
drivers, who employed a low cunning in exploiting the 
Indians and who were quite unworthy of the name 
of Christian. It is very certain that no extreme esti- 
mate is a true one. On the whole the Padres would 
seem to have been very human, and their defects 
to have been largely those of the system of which 
they were a part. ‘he earlier comers, clerical, mili- 
tary and civilian, were of a larger, finer, mould than 
those who came later. During the years of the de- 
cline of Spanish strength, which were the years of 
the first half of the nineteenth century, a certain in- 
capacity, sometimes listless, sometimes care-free, 
seems to have settled down on the entire community. 
No new enterprises were undertaken, and the officials 
were generally corrupt. ‘The days of Anza, Serra 
and Moraga, with their aye aks: for struggle, were 
departed. 

It may be well for us with a view to the subsequent 
history of our own church to attempt a summary of 
the work of the Missions in the Spanish period. 

The total white population in the Spanish era has 
been estimated as follows: 


BPO veel sol oyu cde tei nl he oie ehoge ce ate en cantae 600 
LEO eae vats hha al glniic Poh tid Ce Rar aer ate 970 
(PLONE ALAN CRU RM ARERR DML YE yy 1200 
POO Manag se i ale t  pa Ane oe 2130 
PL Ree eee eis 2 ec ot at cs le en ae eae Rog 


But in reference to these figures it is to be remarked 
that the people of pure white blood were com- 


THE SPANISH BACKGROUND IN CALIFORNIA _ 19 


paratively few in number and these were generally 
the officers and the missionaries. ‘The soldiers for 
the most part were mestizos, a mixture of white and 
Indian blood. Some of the Californians were ex- 
convicts who were sent into the province in expiation 
of their crimes, and were not permitted to leave. 
The Indian population was immensely greater at 
all times. It has been estimated as high as one hun- 
dred and thirty-five thousand, some seventy thousand 
of whom lived within range of the influence of the 
Missions. The converts of the Missions from 
among the Indians numbered twenty thousand three 
hundred and fifty-five in the year 1806. In 1824 
they were said to number twenty-one thousand and 
sixty-six. “Che method of their conversion was often 
a very simple one. It consisted in gifts of food and 
clothing by the Padres to the Indians, together with 
the promise of protection. No Indian was obliged 
to become converted, but having once accepted Chris- 
tianity he was forbidden to leave the Mission. 
There were of course considerable numbers of run- 
away Indians who returned at times to the wild 
tribes, but there were also many Indians who were 
entirely happy in their serfdom, and who could not 
be induced to leave. ‘These Indians did all the work 
of agriculture which was done about the Mission 
and in Lasuen’s time they were taught stock raising 
and household work. They were also instructed in 
certain simple manufactures. They made coarse 
blankets and wove cloth out of which they clothed 
themselves; they learned to tan hides and to make 
shoes and saddles; they even made soap and pottery. 
They operated the flour mills which were conducted 
by the Mission. But in all this activity they were 


20 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


allowed no part in the direction of their work. 
Everything was planned for them. It is a pathetic 
fact that with the passing of the use of the Mission 
buildings the religious work of the Missions has prac- 
tically disappeared. Today it is impossible to find 
any traces of religious influence exercised by the 
Padres among the Indians of the State of California. 

Apart from the Padres there is another dark 
chapter of Spanish history, for there were times 
when the governors deliberately plied the Indians 
with whiskey in order that they might be maddened 
and incited to kill one another. ‘hey evidently be- 
lieved that the country would more easily be gov- 
erned with the Indians dead than if they were alive. 

On the other hand there were times when the 
Indians were a menace to the white settlers, and this 
not always by reason of unkindness received at the 
hands of the whites. One of the most terrific chap- 
ters of the history of the Spanish period was the 
Yuma massacre in 1781, when a company of some 
forty families of immigrants from Sonora, bound 
for Alta California, were slain by the Yuma Indians 
on the bank of the Gila river. Indirectly this mas- 
sacre had a most important affect upon the course of 
Californian history, for it put a stop, for the time 
being, to the use of the overland route which Anza 
had discovered in 1774, and more or less cut off 
California from the active life of the State of 
Mexico. It was thus preserved with a comparatively 
small population until the time of the coming of the 
American frontiersman, of whom we shall read in 
the following chapter. 


CHAPTER II 


AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN 
CALIFORNIA 


O N February 2, 1848, there was signed the treaty 

of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which the State of 
California passed permanently from the ownership 
of Mexico into the possession of the United States. 
Thus ended the period of Spanish and Mexican rule. 
The causes which led to this event lay deep in the 
history of the Pacific Coast and were the necessary 
outcome of forces that had been working in the past. 
To the Americans of the day the acquisition of Cali- 
fornia was manifestly as inevitable as the progress 
of the sun. We must here trace in outline some 
of the causes which culminated in this change of sov- 
ereignty. 

American sailors had been voyaging for a century 
and a half between New Eingland and Pacific Coast 
ports. Here they found a most profitable commerce 
in furs purchased in America and sold again upon 
the coast of China. Out of this traffic a triangular 
commerce of extensive proportions was soon de- 
veloped. Seal skins were especially the object of the 
search of these New England traders. Many of 
their cargoes were exceedingly valuable. It is said 
that the Farallone Islands themselves produced over 
one hundred and fifty thousand skins between 1809 

21 


22 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


and 1812. ‘Then later, with the decline in the supply 
of seals, the skin of the sea otter became a more im- 
portant article of commerce. By the year 1820 the 
number of these animals had been so diminished that 
the business of searching for their skins had ceased 
to be profitable. 

From this time onward the traffic in hides in- 
creased in importance. ‘The original herds which 
had been driven by Anza and other Spanish pioneers 
into Alta California had now multiplied enormously, 
so that all the hillsides from San Diego northward 
as far as Spanish settlement extended were covered 
with wild cattle. Many of the ships which now sailed 
around the Horn returned with cargoes composed 
exclusively of tallow and hides. ‘The classic sea story 
of this period is Richard Henry Dana’s “Two Years 
Before the Mast,” in which he recounts his expert- 
ences upon the California coast. ‘The two ships with 
which he was connected gathered their cargoes of 
hides at Monterey, Santa Barbara, and especially San 
Pedro and San Diego. Dana describes California 
and its inhabitants. ‘The resident of Los Angeles of 
the present time can scarcely picture to himself the 
roughness of the landing at San Pedro or the inhos- 
pitality of the desert of Los Angeles, as it was when 
Dana saw it. But he also speaks of the wonderful 
beauty of the land, of its waters filled with fish and 
its plains covered with thousands of head of cattle, 
of its climate unsurpassed in any region of the world, 
of its healthfulness, its freedom from epidemics such 
as are to be encountered in many ports, of its soil 
that is so fertile as to yield a return of seventy and 
eighty fold. Such was California as seen by a repre- 
sentive intelligent American in the year 1840. Dana 









CAPTAIN ROBERT DOLLAR 


Mr. ArTHUR W. FOSTER 


: Mr. C. C. STEVENSON, JR. 


A PAGE OF PRESBYTERIAN WORTHIES 





AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 23 


also speaks of the inefficiency of the population, who 
were quite content to allow nature to provide for 
them in her ample way with the minimum of exer- 
tion upon their own part. The Missions too had 
declined in grace and influence. For instance, the 
only priest who was now resident at the Mission 
Dolores was a mestizo, whose learning was of the 
slightest. 

From the land side also the American pioneers 
were pushing over the Sierra and settling within the 
state. The Spanish settlements never gained any 
strength except along the sea coast. The interior 
valleys were still left entirely to the Indians and to 
the American white settlers who wandered into them 
and took possession of the land. Several of these 
expeditions have become famous. The career of 
Daniel Boone, related in many forms, has become 
almost an epic. He was a man who wanted room, 
breathing space, and found himself crowded when a 
Yankee settled down within a hundred miles of him. 
Conspicuous among the early pioneers was John 
Bidwell who, with a company of more than sixty 
men, started from Missouri across the trackless wil- 
derness, in order to find a livelihood and happiness 
in California. He has been called the “Prince of 
Waliorniam Pioneers: biewash, alsola) prince, of 
Presbyterian elders and a stalwart leader in moral 
reform during the wildest and most undisciplined 
days of the beginnings of the state. It lies beside our 
purpose to recount the stories of the hardships ex- 
perienced by the various parties of pioneers who 
made their way across Utah and Nevada and over 
the Sierra mountains into the state. They came at 
first on horseback and on foot and, later, when the 


24. ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


trails had been well worn, by prairie-schooner. Some 
of them experienced hardships which are well-nigh 
unbelievable. Some parties, of which the Donner 
party is a most conspicuous instance, terminated in 
death for many of their members. 

The best known of the American settlements was 
that founded by John Sutter on a tract lying along 
the Sacramento river about two miles from its junc- 
tion with the American. ‘This community and an- 
other American colony at Sonoma were chiefly re- 
sponsible for the first American revolt against the 
Mexican government. 

The steady increase of American settlement 
necessarily caused a constant shifting of the political 
balance in the province. ‘The lines of communica- 
tion between the Pacific Coast and the United 
States were being strengthened year by year, while 
those between California and Mexico were growing 
weaker. Not one but many routes led from the east 
into the newly explored land of promise. There was 
the sea route already described; and many were the 
runaway seamen who deserted their ships and were 
added to the American population of the country. 
There was the old land route opened by Anza; and 
there were new routes through newly discovered 
mountain passes, through the defiles of the San 
Bernardino mountains, by the Tejon Pass, by the 
Walker Pass, which Fremont used in 1844, and 
down the Kern Canyon which the same intrepid ex- 
plorer followed in 1845, by way of Truckee and in 
through the Immigrant Gap, the Feather River, and 
by several trails leading southward out of the re- 
gions of the Klamath Lake and the Rogue River. 
California was now open to all points of the coms 


AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 25 


pass, and the new life and energy which were flood- 
ing through the widening channels were almost 
wholly American. 

Moreover, a change had come over the attitude 
of the Spanish-speaking population in Alta Califor- 
nia, as we must here explain. In October, 1821, 
Mexico had declared her independence of Spain, and 
for sixty years thereafter her history was one of 
almost continuous civil warfare, chiefly between the 
privileged classes, as represented by church and army, 
and the mass of the population. This was varied by 
war with the United States. The central govern- 
ent in Mexico City, if such indeed it could be called, 
was able to give but scant attention to the distant 
province of California, for which it had but little 
use except as an asylum for discredited revolution- 
aries, or as a haven of reward for ex-politicians, who 
having served their turn had now to be disposed of. 
The Californians felt no gratitude to Mexico for 
these benefits, and were generally ready to revolt 
upon trifling provocation. But they were upon the 
whole an indolent people, happy in the sunshine, in- 
different as to who might govern them provided only 
that they did not suffer hunger or lose their pastime 
of cock-fighting. And yet, if they felt themselves 
wronged or thwarted upon an occasion, their pas- 
sionate spirit was liable to flash forth furiously into 
anger which was more likely to express itself in elo- 
quent denunciation than in battle involving personal 
danger. 

The upper class had a finer sense of honor, and 
if they too shared in the national care-free disposi- 
tion, they were also hospitable and courtly of 
manner. On the whole the American newcomers 


26 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


were cordially received by the Spanish-speaking 
Californians. ‘Thus it was in the nature of things 
that a break with Mexico would almost inevitably 
come, and that this break would issue in the incor- 
poration of California in the American Union. 

Small revolts against Mexico were not infrequent. 
That led by Alvarado and Castro, in 1836, was 
serious, though bloodless. Its results were the 
making of the Lone Star Flag, and vague proposals 
on the part of some of the American participants to 
emulate the recent exploits of General Sam Houston 
in Texas. A more serious consequence was the con- 
sciousness, now made clear, that Mexico would be 
unable to check anything that California might de- 
sire to do. Another revolt, still more serious, oc- 
curred in 1844, and would have been successful if 
some of the settlers, feeling that the time was not yet 
ripe, had not opposed it. 

But in 1845 Polk became President of the United 
States, and his policy included the annexation of 
California. We cannot go into the details of the 
struggles of those confused years, we can merely 
record the two events which spell the destiny of our 
state. They were the Bear Flag revolt in 1846, and 
the Mexican War which began the same year. In 
reference to the former event it looked at first as 
if American control over the territory would be 
established without the loss of a life. Some of the 
finest representatives of the old Spanish regime, such 
as General Mariano de Vallejo, accepted the new 
order with something more than willingness. And 
on July 7 Commander John L. Sloat raised the 
American flag over the Presidio of Monterey, fired 
a salute and declared California to be American 





AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 27 


territory. Within a week the flag covered the whole 
of northern California. 

But an uprising in Los Anoeles, projected and 
participated in by the most lawless elements of the 
native population, became the cause of a good deal 
of bloodshed in the months of September and 
October before it was finally quelled. On January 
13, 1847, Fremont, for the American expeditionary 
force, and Andreas Pico, for the opposing Califor- 
nians, put their names to the Cahuenga capitulation, 
and thus terminated the American war so far as 
California was concerned. This chapter of destiny 
was written. California, which had been a land of 
unexplored and undeveloped resources, largely 
desert, of sleeping pueblos around which congre- 
gated the unkempt mestizos, now was to become a 
land of American freedom and energy, with gold 
mines, laws, vineyards, orange groves and oil wells, 
with immense cities and tall steel towers that met 
the sky, with schools and universities, and with great 
Protestant churches proclaiming the redemptive 
grace of the sacrifice of the Son of God. Something 
more than a year later, on February 2, 1848, there 
was signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by 
which California was formally ceded by Mexico to 
the United States of America. 

Meanwhile there was made the great Haan 
which was destined to change the whole face of the 
new territory. In the tail-race of Sutter’s Sawmill, 
near Placeville, a man by the name of James W. 
Marshall, an employee of John A. Sutter, 
discovered some particles of gold; thus sim- 
ultaneously with the news of the transfer of 
sovereignty over California came the announcement 


28 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


of the discovery of this new wealth within her 
borders. If the discovery had come at an earlier 
date, it would probably have turned the current of 
history; because the Spaniards were ardent miners 
and seekers after gold, and they would so have filled 
the land with settlers of their own blood that it might 
have taken on a permanently Spanish character. For 
the historian who believes in God the postponement 
of this discovery cannot appear less than a decree 
of Providence. Before the end of the year the news 
was proclaimed throughout the world and men of 
all nations, young, adventurous and undisciplined, 
some of them with a shady past behind them, has- 
tened to claim their share in the amazing new wealth. 
Most of the Americans already resident in the state 
started in hundreds for the scene of the diggings as 
soon as they learned of the discovery. Carpenter, 
baker, mason, farmer, bartender, dropped his ac- 
customed occupation, and turned miner. ‘The ships 
in the harbor of San Francisco were deserted by the 
seamen who forfeited their wages. Later there 
were three hundred and fifty of these ships lying 
together in the harbor at one time. Many of them 
were crazy old craft, scarcely seaworthy, formerly 
retired to some coast duty, but now hastily pressed 
into service again as ocean carriers. Many never 
returned to the harbors whence they had sailed, but 
were hauled up in the marshes as close to the firm 
ground as possible and transformed into lodging- 
houses and restaurants. Some of these ships were 
used as warehouses; one famous vessel, the 
Euphemia, was made the city prison. Many of 
these vessels which were never moved from the mud 
flats in which they were imbedded upon their arrival 








AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 29 


in the bay, became water-logged and were allowed 
to remain as filling material when afterwards the 
waterfront was built up and extended to its present 
dimensions. Even today when excavating for new 
buildings on the filled land west of the Ferry Build- 
ing the excavators will come across the timbers of 
old vessels stranded there in the first years of the 
life of the city. 

In the pursuit of gold, the printer left his press 
and San Francisco was for a time without a news- 
paper. Even the doctor left his practice to join the 
diggers. The kitchen utensils were turned into 
mining pans and the iron implements into crowbars, 
pickaxes and spades.* 

There was a young Frenchman by the name of 
Ernest de Massey who arrived with the gold rush 
and whose journal has been recently published by the 
California Historical Society. He has given us a 
clear picture of the social and business conditions of 
his time. We will probably get a more vivid concep- 
tion of the situation if we quote from Massey’s 
journal of the date, Tuesday, December 14, 1849, 
when he was entering San Francisco Bay. “Little 
by little the bay opened before us and, across the 
forest of masts, we caught a glimpse of the village 
with the emigrants’ camps pitched on the sloping hill- 
sides which overlook the bay, ocean, inlet, and 
peninsula on which San Francisco rises. “Iwo years 
ago this site was almost a wilderness, now it is 
crowded with wooden and sheet-iron houses of every 
kind, shape, and description, and with tents of every 
color forming an amphitheatre. ‘These house a 


1Cleland: A History of California—The American Period, p. 
228. 


30 ‘THe PRespyTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


population of adventurers, vagabonds, bankrupts, 
refugees from justice, merchants, deserting sailors, 
and gamblers who have no home or country. Inter- 
spersed among them are some honest men, work- 
men, and speculators, who have come here from all 
over the world. This is what we see about two 
kilometers ahead of us—a great city in the making. 
Around us ride three hundred ships or more which 
have arrived or are just arriving. After unloading 
cargo, being unable to procure freight or sailors, they 
are forced to lie here idle through the winter season.” 
Later on he tells us about the cost of habitation in 
the city. ‘“‘A house, or rather a wooden shack in 
a good district, so I am told, rents for thirty-five 
hundred dollars a year. Eggs are worth two dol- 
lars; bread is sixty cents for a loaf weighing four- 
teen ounces. Meat, the most reasonable commodity, 
as animals are plentiful in this country, brings from 
eighteen to twenty-five cents a pound.” 

Naturally, in this place, where, without any of the 
ordinary public utilities or conveniences of life, the 
population of a city was suddenly deposited in the 
mud and sand of an unsurveyed and marshy water- 
front, there was little opportunity to do anything in 
the way of planning the city. The center was known 
as “Happy Valley,” and was in a square which ap- 
proximates the area now enclosed by First, Market, 
Second and Mission Streets. Here were the stores 
and warehouses. ‘Che dwellings straggled out over 
the hills in all directions, put down helter-skelter in 
the hollows or among the bushes. Rincon Hill early 
became the most desirable residential district. But 
during the rainy season the mud and water were such 
as to render practically impassable the lower lying 


AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 31 


streets of the city. It is said that pack animals some- 
times completely disappeared and were drowned in 
the slough of Montgomery Street. 

The population too was most cosmopolitan. A 
large part of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands 
seem to have come over to California with the rush. 
There were thousands of Chinese, who did most of 
the manual labor. Some of the Mexicans engaged 
in mining, some worked at trades, and more of them 
were simply gamblers. The fashions of dress in- 
cluded every costume hitherto known or unknown. 

For the first three years, beginning with 1849, 
there were few women and consequently few families 
and few homes in San Francisco. Men who had 
been born and reared in conditions of culture and 
refinement in New England or in the old world, lived 
here as they had never lived before, in tents and 
filthy shanties, where sometimes two or three score 
would sleep together in a single room in narrow 
berths nailed to the weather boards, or on the floor, 
or on trunks or boxes. In consequence business men 
spent as much of their time as possible in their places 
of business, and when away from duty lived in the 
cafés which sprang up on every side, and became a 
notable feature in the subsequent life of the city. 
They had as cooks Chinese, Mexicans, Kanakas, 
Malayans and Moors, who advertised boisterously 
the native cooking of their respective countries. 
There were chefs of almost every European country, 
especially French and British. 

Side by side with most of these cafés were the 
gambling places which kept open day and night, and 
where the patrons would drink, gamble, or even 
sleep on the couches, as they felt like doing. Some- 


32 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


times they were robbed while they slept. There were 
many cafés chantants, where an orchestra, often of 
primitive instruments, though sometimes of the high- 
est professional merit, and singers, were employed. 
We quote the contemporary eye-witness of young 
Massey: ‘‘The standing population of San Fran- 
cisco is computed at approximately fifty thousand. 
This number is doubled if all the floating population 
living in tents, ships and even in all-night gambling 
houses is added. Croupiers even offer to their 
patrons, free of charge, anything they like in the 
way of food and drinks. ‘This is done with an 
ulterior motive—and the trick is usually successful. 
Such a place is rented to a proprietor at the custo- 
mary rate of thirty thousand or forty thousand 
dollars a year, who in turn sublets all the room he 
can dispose of at so much an hour. ‘This new tenant, 
in accordance with his receipts and capital, establishes 
roulette, monte, thirty-and-forty, baccarat, and so 
forth, paying in proportion to the amount of space 
he uses from fifty to one hundred dollars an evening, 
and acting as banker if he chooses. However, he 
must have at least twenty or thirty thousand dollars 
before even attempting to run a bank. 

“The more piles of gold there are in evidence the 
more the passion for play is excited. With this end 
in mind a group of capitalists often form a company 
and pool their capital, some of their members acting 
as decoys to the inexperienced, others keeping an eye 
on the players who are apt to be numerous. It is a 
game where trickery and treachery are constantly 
pitted against inexperience and the gambling fever 
which seems inbred in human nature. This is how 
cliques assumed to be civilized make colossal fortunes 





AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 33 


and gain the whip hand. ‘Though immoral and 
reprehensible, yet such is the case.” 

In this connection it is worthy of note that some- 
times some of the earliest Protestant ministers on 
the Pacific Coast were thought to be gamblers, be- 
cause they were decently attired. It would seem as 
though the gamblers were the most respectably 
dressed men in the community. 

Against such a background of Spanish Missions, 
Mexican settlements, American adventurers and 
tumultuous gold seekers must our picture of later 
Presbyterian evangelization be painted. 


CHAPTER III 


HOW OUR HISTORY IS DIVIDED 


C ee history of the Presbyterian Church in Cali- 
fornia may be divided into three periods, 
namely, 1848 to 1870, which we may call the Pio- 
neering Period; 1871 to 1902, which we may call 
the Period of Expansion; and 1902 to 1927, which 
we may call the Period of Organization. These 
terms do not indeed precisely cover the character- 
istics of the several periods, for organization there 
was in the earliest period, and pioneering there is still 
to-day; but they are probably as satisfactory as any 
others we could choose. 

The Pioneering Period extends from the arrival 
of the first Presbyterian minister within the limits 
of the Synod to the Re-union Assembly of 1870. 
Practically all the churches established throughout 
this period were assisted by money contributed in the 
east. Owing to the fact that the gold rush concen- 
trated the attention of the world on the northern 
half of the State, the influence of the new popula- 
tion was generally confined to Northern California. 
The churches of Southern California are few and 
weak during this period. On the other hand many 
of the towns of the northern portion which grew to 
large proportions in a few months ultimately ceased 
to exist, as did Columbia, or were reduced to small 
limits, as was Big Oak Flat. Thus more than seventy 

34 





‘OSEPH A. STEVEN- | 2 : Gustav A. 
son, D.D. of BRIEGLEB, D.D. 





HucH K. WALKER, 
DD Liew: 


EDWIN F. HALLENBECK, D.D. WILLIAM A. Hunter, D.D. 


A PAGE OF MODERATORS 





How Ovr History 1s DivipEp 35 


churches which were established in more or less prom- 
ising fields ceased to exist, and other churches which 
were among the earliest to be founded, while they have 
not gone out of existence, have continued in a strug- 
gling condition or have grown weaker than they were 
in their inception. This is true also of the educational 
institutions founded by the pioneer church. There were 
no public high schools before 1870, and the church 
supplied academies which afterward disappeared. 
One of the early colleges established by the church 
later was reorganized into the University of Calli- 
fornia. The second period is that of expansion, 
especially in the southern part of the state. The 
gold rush ended, the settlers of the state discovered 
that there was better gold in the fields of waving 
wheat or in the radiant orange groves which later 
filled the valleys and clambered up the hillsides. New 
settlement, made now, became of a much more per- 
manent character. Its basis was the farm, the vine- 
yard and the orchard. It contained the elements of 
an ordered life, as the early settlement did not. This 
settlement was of a kind much more favorable to 
the establishment and growth of churches than was 
that of the first influx of adventurers. 

The same year that saw the final vote of the 
Presbyterian church on Re-union saw also the last 
spikes driven—gold and silver spikes—in the rail- 
way line which connected California with the Atlantic 
seaboard. And during the succeeding fifteen years 
railway construction was rapidly pushed into every 
part of the state, linking up California, north and 
south, the valleys and the seaboard, and, finally, 
California with Oregon. The products of California 
now begin to flow steadily in an ever increasing 


36 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


stream into the eastern markets and the markets of 
the world. Her isolation was ended. The wives and 
families of the settlers now came with them into the 
new West. Grammar schools multiplied and high 
schools were erected in all important centers. The 
University of California got effectively under way, 
and later Stanford University was founded. The 
population of the state aimed at not merely attaining 
a living, but at living well and finely. ‘There was 
still a good deal of crudity and rawness in the new 
towns and villages, but the aspiration after a higher 
life was increasingly asserting its right and finding 
its way to achievement. 

Moreover, the Presbyterian Church had now a 
new unity and, consequently, a new spiritual vision 
and a new consciousness of strength in attacking the 
problems of the expanding community. It is sig- 
nificant that almost all of the churches founded in this 
period survived, and many of them came to com- 
manding strength. Until quite recently it has been 
generally true, and in a few districts of the state 
it is still true, that the towns and cities established 
by the earliest American settlement were much more 
difficult places in which to achieve results in religious 
work than those in which the church and the com- 
munity came into being in our second period. 

The third period, extending from 1902 onwards, 
we have called that of organization. ‘The number 
of new churches now enrolled is small in comparison 
with the increase of population, chiefly because the 
existing towns were already supplied with churches. 
But it has been the period of the greatest growth in 
membership, in financial strength and in power of 
effectiveness, of the previously existing churches. Of 


How Ouvr History 1s Divipep ay 


course many new churches have come into being, and 
several of them, planted in new centers of popula- 
tion, have sprung at once into splendid strength and 
leadership. ‘his is the period too in which there is 
made a deliberate effort to undertake the whole prob- 
lem of ministering to the entire community. Re- 
ligious work is now far more complex than in the 
early days, and requires a more complex organiza- 
tion. Various churchs in highly specialized groups 
of our population have had to take on a specialized 
task. And whereas formerly the only method em- 
ployed in salvaging the wrecks of society was the 
evangelistic, or revival, meeting, today the methods 
are manifold, and a great church has a staff of highly 
specialized workers engaged in religious education, 
relief work, pastoral visitation, and distribution of 
literature. A church that is famous for its evangeli- 
cal fervor may even have on its staff a cook whose 
whole time is spent in preparing the meals for the 
various clubs and committees who dine at stated 
intervals within its precincts. Besides this there is 
today, above the level of the organization of the 
individual congregation, the general work, under the 
control of the Presbytery, or the Synod, of Mission 
superintendence, church extension and Christian 
education. 

Such in outline are the three periods of the life 
of our beloved church within our Synod. These we 
will now study in detail. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 


O the Reverend Timothy Dwight Hunt, D.D., 
belongs the honor of being the first Presby- 
terian minister to engage in Christian work in Cali- 
fornia. In 1848 he was pastor of the American 
Church in Honolulu. He was a member of the 
Presbytery of Genesee, of the New School, and had 
gone to the Hawaiian Islands in 1844 as a missionary 
of the American Board of Commissioners of For- 
eign Missions. Here, in 1848, he had been invited 
by the Americans resident in Honolulu to build up a 
church among them. But when the news of the dis- 
covery of gold in California reached the Islands 
every foreigner who could get away started for the 
new territory. Mr. Hunt’s congregation being thus 
naturally dissolved, he ‘‘obtained a leave of absence 
for three months with the privilege of continued ab- 
sence or return, as Providence should indicate,” and 
set out with the rest of Honolulu for San Francisco, 
where he arrived on October 29, 1848. ‘There was 
some question as to whether the recklessly wicked 
population would tolerate the presence of a Protes- 
tant minister. Only one passion possessed the soul 
of the place, the passion for gold, which, whether 
gratified or ungratified, became the root of all evil. 
But he tells us himself that the very wickedness of 
the town at the time of his arrival had provoked a 
38 


THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 39 


reaction which made even some of the godless ones 
long for the presence of a minister. Supported by 
the better elements, in December, 1848, he became 
chaplain at large to the town, at the same time bind- 
ing himself not to organize a church which would 
belong to any one denomination for the space of a 
year. It was this promise on the part of Mr. Hunt, 
given in the sincere conviction that thus he could best 
unite the diverse religious elements of the town, 
which made it impossible for him to organize the 
first Presbyterian church in the State, and which 
ultimately resulted in his organizing the First Congre- 
gational Church of San Francisco, of which he be- 
came the first pastor. His first services were held 
morning and evening in the school house on Ports- 
mouth Square, the only school house of the city, close 
to the present Hall of Justice. This arrangement 
continued through into the following year. 

Meanwhile other Presbyterian ministers were on 
their way. 

There were three Old School ministers who later 
were organized into the Old School Presbytery of 
California and who were long known as the three 
W’s. ‘These were the Reverend Sylvester Wood- 
bridge, the Reverend Albert Williams and the Rev- 
erned James Woods. They were all strong, effective 
men, able to express themselves with cogency and 
conviction. 

Of these, Dr. Woodbridge was the first to arrive, 
landing in February, 1849. He was a staunch 
Presbyterian, of Covenanter build, slow in coming 
to a conclusion but immovable as a mountain when 
he believed that his position was right. If his grand- 
father had been a minister instead of being a physi- 


40 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


cian he would have been of the eighth generation 
in the ministry. He was thirty-six years of age, tall 
of stature, splendid in physical strength, and possess- 
ing both imagination and logic. It will be interesting 
to some people to hear that in the winter of 1848-9 
there were two opinions in California regarding the 
location of the city of future greatness, and a good 
many people, moved by the real estate propaganda 
of General Mariano G. Vallejo, thought that Benicia 
would be the metropolis rather than San Francisco. 
It was only twenty miles from the Golden Gate, and 
on the main land, having direct access to the inland 
valleys and to the foothills where the claims were 
being located, whereas San Francisco’s only outlet 
by land was to the south. Moreover, Benicia was 
immediately surrounded by fertile country, while San 
Francisco was chiefly a collection of sand lots. ‘Thus, 
early in 1849, a good many ships went sailing past 
the sand dunes and cliffs of Yerba Buena, with its 
marshy water front, to the fine, clear anchorage of 
the harbor of Benicia. And there were San Fran- 
cisco capitalists who sold out their holdings and 
moved to Benicia, convinced that there lay the future 
city. Dr. Woods tells us of one gentleman of his 
acquaintance, Chauncey Wetmore by name, who, in 
1847, bought two blocks on Montgomery Street for 
twenty-seven dollars each, sold them in 1848 for four 
hundred dollars each, and moved to Benicia. Two 
years later the same two blocks were worth two 
hundred thousand dollars. The capitalists who 
transferred their interests to Benicia persuaded Dr. 
Woodbridge to accompany them, promising him land 
for a college and many other advantages. On April 
15, 1849, he organized the Presbyterian Church in 


THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 4! 


Benicia, the first church of our denomination within 
the State. He organized it in the schoolhouse build- 
ing. And here he preached on the Lord’s day, taught 
the children on the weekdays, and at night, when the 
house was empty of the voices which hummed 
through it in the day, he slept in a sailor’s hammock 
which he swung from the rafters. ‘The vision of the 
coming greatness of Benicia vanished within a year. 
But despite all the discouragements of adverse cir- 
cumstances Dr. Woodbridge stayed at his post for 
eighteen years. Then he left Benicia to come to San 
Francisco and undertake the publication of ‘The 
Occident. Dr. Woodbridge was a man of the tem- 
per of the martyrs. His abilities were of the finest, 
and his labors untiring; but he never became con- 
nected with any enterprise destined to permanence. 
The church in Benicia for which he labored so un- 
selfishly finally ceased to be. The memory of it is 
preserved in the name of Benicia Presbytery, but 
there is today no Presbyterian Church in Benicia. 
The final failure of this early hope can be briefly 
told. In the minutes of Presbytery of April 10, 
1875, there is this report of a special committee on 


the Benicia Church: 


The house of worship and the lot have been sold. The 
church has been torn down, and the lot on which it stood 
with adjacent land has been converted into a public park 
in the city of Benicia. 

The trustees of the church were largely in debt to Dr. 
Woodbridge, and they assigned the property to him in part 
payment of their debt. Subsequently he transferred the same 
to his creditor Dr. Peabody. 

Of the membership of this church there are only five now 
remaining. We recommend that the figures in our Statisti- 
cal Report be corrected in accordance with the facts. 


42 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


The report was adopted. 

Even the fittings of the church were converted to 
secular uses. The pews and bell of the church be- 
came the property of the St. Augustine Academy, 
which was under Episcopal control. And The Occi- 
dent, after a career of more than twenty years, finally 
ceased to exist. While Dr. Woodbridge was at the 
height of his powers he declined several openings to 
go to more promising fields of labor. But he filled 
his small place with a great spirit, and wielded a per- 
sonal influence that extended throughout the west- 
ern church. Other communities were largely in- 
debted to him for his spiritual ministration. The 
church at Vallejo owes to him primarily its existence. 

The second of this W group of pioneers was the 
Reverend Albert Williams, who had enjoyed a peace- 
ful pastorate of ten years in Clinton, New Jersey, 
when, on February 1, 1849, he “received a joint 
commission from the Boards of Education and Mis- 
sions of the Presbyterian Church, to proceed forth- 
with to the new field of Christian, as it is also secular, 
enterprise in Upper California.” Such is the muta- 
bility of human affairs that four days later, while he 
was still unable to discern reality from dream, as he 
tells us, he embarked on the steamship Crescent City 
for Chagres en route for California. 

His California pastorate began immediately, on 
shipboard, as all his traveling companions were 
headed towards El Dorado. He preached on Febru- 
ary 11, the only Sabbath of the Atlantic voyage, and 
at this time made the acquaintance of several of the 
men who were afterwards to be his supporters in 
San Francisco. He spent a month upon the Isthmus 
while waiting for the steamship Oregon to take him 


THE PIONEERS OF FoRTY-NINE 43 


from Panama to his destination, and here he came 
to know others of his future members. Most of the 
passengers were traveling in one or another of the 
mining and trading companies. On April 1 he 
entered the Golden Gate. 

On the evening of the second day after his arrival | 
he met Dr. Woodbridge at the schoolhouse in Benicia 
and spent two days in conference regarding plans for 
the immediate future. At the end of the week he 
returned to San Francisco and received a cordial, 
fraternal greeting from Mr. Hunt, for whom he 
peached on the following Sabbath, the 8th, on the 
southwest corner of the Plaza. Mr. Williams, in his 
own narrative, expresses his surprise at discovering 
that at the time of his arrival there was as yet no 
organized Protestant Church in California. 

In some of the journals of early miners there are 
found references to the presence of evangelical 
preachers prior to this time, both in the city and in 
the camps, but some of these preachers were ap- 
parently illiterate, and some were without ordination 
or connection with any ecclesiastical organization. 
But there were other occasional services held within 
the limits of the state. 

Altogether four Protestant ministers had landed 
in the city during the month that preceded the com- 
ing of Mr. Williams, but when he organized the 
First Presbyterian Church it was also the first Prot- 
estant congregation of any kind to be organized in 
the city, and the first to continue with an unbroken 
history from that time until 1927. He tells us that 
the friendships which had been formed in travel and 
had been cemented by common hardships, waited 


1See Appendix I. 


44 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


only the touch of Providence to bring these elements 
of Christian life together into an organic union. 
The personnel of the First Church consisted chiefly 
of Mr. Williams’s companions in travel. The first 
step taken towards affecting organization was a con- 
ference held in the law office of Mr. Frederick Bil- 
lings in the City Hall building. This is a name that 
is constantly recurring in the religious and secular 
history of the city. Mr. Billings, together with Dr. 
George F. Turner, Mr. W. W. Caldwell and Mr. 
Williams himself, were the first active movers in the 
enterprise. Others were soon associated with them, 
conspicuous among whom was Judge Elihu Wood- 
ruff. The supporters of the new church numbered 
some of the most influential leaders in the commer- 
cial, official and professional life of the city. The 
chief initial difficulty was due to the lack of a suitable 
place of meeting. 

Meanwhile there was no school of any kind in 
San Francisco. ‘The one formerly existing had been 
closed owing to the abrupt departure of both teacher 
and pupils for the mines. Mr. Williams, at the earn- 
est solicitation of some of the citizens, reopened the 
school, which was now known as ‘‘The Institute,” 
and, though heavily burdened in many ways, con- 
ducted it for five months until the pressure of his 
ministerial duties compelled him to relinquish it. 

On April 15 he assisted Dr. Woodbridge in the 
organization of the church in Benicia, and on May 
20 he organized the First Church of San Francisco. 
The original members were as follows: William W. 
Caldwell, George F. Turner, Frederick Billings, 
Mrs. Sarah B. Gillespie, Mrs. Margaret A. Geary 
and Mrs. Ann Hodghton. Mr. William W. Cald- 


steak aAy-AJUIM} OF “IOISeg “CQ'q “AIWHLND YAY WVITIAA ‘AIY 


i 


OOSIONVYA NVS ‘HOWNHO NVIVALAGSAYd LSU AHL 











THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 45 


well and Dr. George F. Turner were elected elders; 
and, subsequently, when the time came to hold prop- 
erty, Mr. B. Simmons, Judge Elihu Woodruff and 
Mr. Hiram Grimes were elected as the first Board 
of Trustees. On the list of supporters are some of 
the best known names of Californian history. Many 
of the mercantile firms of the city made financial con- 
tributions, 

During the first two years of the church’s life the 
place of worship shifted frequently. Service was 
held in the Court Room belonging to the District 
Assembly, and afterwards in a military tent which 
was purchased and located on a site belonging to the 
church on Dupont Street, now Grant Avenue, be- 
tween Pacific Street and Broadway. This tent was 
pitched by volunteers, a very respectable group of 
tent-pitchers, on a Saturday in August, and it 
sheltered the congregation, now grown strong and 
confident, until the winter rains drove them to seek 
a more effectual cover. Then for a short time the 
congregation worshipped on Sunday afternoons in 
the shed which housed the First Methodist Church. — 
Soon they moved again to the Superior Court room 
in the City Hall, one of the finest of the new build- 
ings of the city, and here continued until their own 
wooden building arrived, planned and sawed and 
planed and chiselled in the east, and shipped by sail- 
ing vessel around Cape Horn. It was the gift of 
members of the Scotch Church of New York City. 
There were not many carpenters in San Francisco in 
those days, nor many mechanics of any trade. All~ 
the mechanics had turned miner. The only way of 
getting a decent church building, or for that matter 
a decent house, was to have it manufactured in some 


46 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


other part of the world, shipped in a sailing vessel 
and knocked together here. ‘The stone of the old 
Parrot Building, recently demolished, on the north- 
west corner of California and Montgomery Streets, 
was quarried in China, fitted there block by block, 
and finally put together in San Francisco by Chinese 
coolies. 

The new First Church edifice was an object of 
admiration to all the city. Californian Presbyterians 
had not yet decided that they preferred Mission and 
Byzantine styles of architecture to Gothic; and 
Gothic the new church was, with a porch and a 
belfry, and “a sweet toned bell.” On the ground 
floor and in the gallery together it would seat seven 
hundred and fifty people. But even while the struc- 
ture was in process of erection a violent rain storm 
laid it in ruins. Nothing daunted, the congregation 
took hold again, paid the additional costs of con- 
struction and opened the church for dedicatory ser- 
vices on January 19, 1851. 

But this building too was not destined long to sur- 
vive. In the first half of 1851 the city was swept by 
six disastrous fires, at first thought to be accidental, 
but finally known to be of incendiary origin. The 
church being relatively remote from the center was 
not reached until the sixth fire, when it was com- 
pletely consumed. And the members of the congre- 
gation had in many cases lost all that they possessed. 
It was some time before they were ready again to 
proceed to build. ‘Then, in eleven days, they erected 
a rough wooden church and dedicated it in October, 
18st. 

Before leaving this history of the early home of 
the First Church, let us look ahead for a period of 


eee 


THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 47 


seven years to a time subsequent to the departure 
of Dr. Williams, but when his work was still going 
strongly forward. On May 13, 1858, a new First 
Church had just been completed on Stockton Street, 
a church described by the next day’s newspaper as 
‘‘a substantial brick edifice, stately and ornate.” Mr. 
Frederick Billings, the good lawyer and elder, of 
whom we have already heard, is now, as chairman 
of the building committee, making an address at 
the opening service. There is no better way in which 
to catch the spirit of the church in those days than 
by listening to his voice. 


Do you not indeed wonder that the little church, originally 
of six persons, should have persevered through all these won- 
derful nine years, and been permitted to reach this house, 
standing where only a bridle path led the way through the 
bushes that waved to the wind on this very spot in the 
month of May, 1849. 

As my thoughts go back to our small beginnings—and 
how often do they wander thither—how clearly comes up 
before me the evening when three gentlemen, with one who 
afterward became their pastor, met in a little office in an old 
adobe building, called the City Hotel (famous in early times, 
but long since in ashes), and resolved upon the organization 
of this church. And how clearly the bright Sunday after- 
noon following, when, with three ladies, making six in all, 
the church was organized. It was in the little school-house, 
on the upper side of the Plaza, then the only public building 
in the city. And how vividly do the thronging memories, 
as I speak to-night, bring up all the wanderings of this 
church from that hour to the present! 

How well do I recollect that school-house, our first place 
of worship; and the dark and dingy and contracted room 
on Dupont Street, called a court-room, which next received 
us; and the garret chamber with naked beams overhead, of 
an unfinished house on Pacific street, where next we assem- 
blem; and the large oblong tent on Dupont Street, which 
afterward, during the dry season of 1849, served us well; and 


48 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the room of the Custom House, in the zinc building now 
standing at the corner of Clay Street and the Plaza, to 
which the inclemency of the weather drove us; and the 
Superior Court-room, in the so-called Graham House, at 
the corner of Kearny and Pacific Streets, whither we next 
migrated; and then to the tasteful church edifice on Stockton 
Street, sent us by kind friends in the East, of which per- 
haps we were too proud, and which to our utter anguish, 
the great fire of June, 1851, swept away; and then the old 
adobe building standing on the present site of St. Mary’s 
Hospital, whither we fled, stunned by the effects of the fire; 
and then the old St. Francis on Clay Street, where for awhile 
we tarried; and then the temporary building erected on the 
old site—a plain structure, prompted by a sense of the con- 
stant peril of fire—from which, through the Chinese Chapel, 
in which we have worshipped while this house has been pro- 
gressing, we have found our way hither, where we hope long 
to dwell! 

Eventful scenes were all these stages in the life of our 
church. Far more so than anyone who did not pass through 
them will ever be able to realize. For me they make a con- 
tinuous thread; and though they fail not to bring up many 
a thought of sadness, they seem to-night to make the silver 
thread of all these nine years gone. 


Thus it was that amid scenes of violence and riot 
the church, with its spiritual message, held steadily 
on its way. Nor were there ever wanting in the 
most uproarious days spiritually-eminded men and 
women who were true to their faith and to their. 
religious responsibilities. From the beginning the 
church always held in connection with its preaching 
services a Sabbath School and a week-night prayer 
meeting. Dr. Williams tells us of an incident at 
the time of the dedication of the First Methodist 
Episcopal Church when the Reverend William. 
Taylor announced that the prayer meeting for that 
church would be held on Friday evening, “that it 
might not interfere with other prayer meetings.” 


THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 49 


Dr. Williams suggested to him the advantages of 
their holding all the prayer meetings on a common 
evening so as to have the other evenings free for 
occasional meetings. Mr. Taylor then instantly 
changed his announcement by stating that it would 
be held on Wednesday evening “‘in order that his 
church might fall in line with the other churches.” 

Dr. Williams occupied a large place in the early 
life of the city. He was present at the first meeting 
of the California Legislature in San Jose, in 1850. 
He was effective in the organization of several other 
churches in and about San Francisco. But the strain 
of this pioneer life told upon his physical strength 
and in 1854 he found it necessary to resign from 
his church and seek retirement. He died on April 
hip a tteye tee 

The third of our pioneer W’s was the Reverend 
James Woods, D.D., who was appointed Home Mis- 
sionary to California by the Presbyterian Board of 
Domestic Missions in November, 1848, and, by 
direction of the Mission Board entered immediately 
upon his duties. But prior to his coming to Cali- 
fornia he visited New Orleans and other southern 
cities, presenting to the churches the cause of Home 
Missions and the needs of the new field of Cali- 
fornia. On May 19, 1849, he sailed from New 
York on the ship Alice Tarlton, rounded Cape 
Horn, and reached San Francisco early in January, 
1850. If the vessel had made progress according to 
expectation he would have arrived in October, but 
he experienced the severity of the storms of the 
Atlantic as well as the wearisomeness of being be- 
calmed in the tropics on the Pacific. He organized 
the First Presbyterian Church of Stockton on March 


50 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


17, 1850, and dedicated its first building on May 
5. This was the first house of worship built and 
dedicated as a Presbyterian church in California. 
Dr. Woods had a wide range of activities, extending 
from Los Angeles to the upper end of Lake County 
and out into Nevada. We shall later have occasion 
to touch upon some of his activities in connection 
with the history of several of our churches. At this 
point let it suffice us briefly to mention some of the 
phases of the work in which he was subsequently 
engaged. He organized the First Presbyterian 
Church of Los Angeles in 1855, but this church did 
not survive. He also organized the Geary Street 
Presbyterian Church in San Francisco but it was 
not permanent. He organized the First Church of 
Santa Rosa in 1856, which continues to the present 
time. He organized the First Presbyterian Church 
of Healdsburg in 1858 and later was installed as its 
pastor. In 1860 and 1861 he was Superintendent 
of Missions in California for the Synod of the 
Pacific, traveling over the entire field from Yreka to 
Los Angeles and organizing several churches. He 
served, as Stated Supply, the churches in Virginia 
City and Carson City, Nevada, and that of Tomb- 
stone, in Arizona. Up to the year 1880 Dr. Woods 
had preached at least one sermon in every large town 
of California and many more sermons outside of this 
State. 

It is characteristic of the man and of many of his 
associates in this pioneer field that with all his varied 
service to the church he never received any compen- 
sation from the Board of Home Missions except for 
traveling expenses, from the time when first he came 
to California. 








THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 51 


In his “California Recollections,” published in 
San Francisco in 1878, he gives us some very interest- 
ing pictures of the conditions of the church life of his 
day. He tells us of the meeting of the first Presby- 
tery, which was held in his home in Stockton in the 
spring of 1850, and the members of which were Drs. 
Woodbridge and Williams and himself. The 
Presbytery held its meeting “in the sitting-room,”’ 
and, he adds, “‘the sitting-room was the dining-room 
and the kitchen, or the kitchen and dining-room was 
the sitting-room, as you might elect. While Presby- 
tery was transacting its business, my wife was pre- 
paring dinner for us in the same room; and I was 
rocking the cradle with my foot while handling 
Presbytery papers with my hands. ‘The occupant of 
that cradle was the editor of a daily paper in 
Petaluma in 1870 and editor of the “Silver World” 
in Colorado in 1875.” : 

When the Synod of California was organized, Dr. 
Woods was its first Moderator. He passed to his 
reward on October 10, 1886, honored to the last by 
his brethren in the ministry. 

In November, 1848, the Reverend Samuel H. 
Willey was ordained by the Fourth Presbytery of 
New York, of the New School, and the Reverend 
John W. Douglas was ordained by the Third Pres- 
bytery, and both were immediately commissioned by 
the American Home Missionary Society, the joint 
society of Congregational and New School Presby- 
terian Churches, for work in California. They left 
New York on December 1, 1848, and arrived in 
Monterey on February 23, 1849, where Dr. Willey 
remained for a year and a half. This was then the 
capital of the Territory. He commenced Presby- 


52 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


terian service in March, 1849, his associate, the 
Reverend John W. Douglas, going on to San Jose, 
where he located. Some time after his arrival he 
traveled on horseback from Monterey to San Jose, 
exploring the territory in the interests of Home 
Missions. 

In a letter written by Dr. Willey late in life from 
his place of retirement in Berkeley he describes his 
first service held in Monterey in March, 1849. 


The first Protestant services by a resident minister were 
held in the quarters of Governor Bennett Riley and his 
family, and afterwards in one end of the cuartel. Services 
were held there regularly. Colton Hall was completed at 
that time and in a Protestant community services would 
naturally have been held there; but Chaplain Walter Colton, 
who was then alcalde, thought it best not to begin there, for 
the reason that the young folks disliked to have religious 
worship conducted in a building which they wished to use 
for amusement. ‘The congregation consisted of Governor 
Riley and his family, and the families of some of his 
associates. In numbers, of course, the congregation was 
very small. “There were a few children who were gathered 
into Sunday School. I think that this was the first Pro- 
testant worship in Monterey directed by a Protestant min- 
ister. Alcalde Colton did not conduct religious worship in 
Monterey, but when a warship happened to come into port 
and was there on Sunday, he went on board and fulfilled his 
duty as chaplain of the Navy. I learned many years after- 
wards that the fact that the members of the government 
attended worship made a great impression on the older mem- 
bers of society in Monterey, inasmuch as the people of the 
town had only attended early morning worship in the Catholic 
Church. . . . There were not at that time members of the . 
Presbyterian Church who could be organized into a church, 
nor were there for many years afterwards. For the rush of 
population to California was to San Francisco, and the old 
town of Monterey was stationary. . . . Inasmuch as the 
Constitutional Convention had designated San Jose as the 





HESREY. sAMUEDS HS WILCEY «DDI LED: 





THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE fe 


capital of the new state, and most of the military force for- 
merly located at Monterey had now been removed, very 
little change took place for several years. I resided there 
until August, 1850, when I removed to San Francisco. 


It will be impossible within the limits of space 
at our disposal adequately to describe the career of 
Dr. Willey, as indeed that of many other of our 
distinguished founders. We may perhaps get the 
proportions of the man in the statement made by 
Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the Uni- 
versity of California, when, in 1910, he presented 
Dr. Willey for the Honorary Degree of LL.D. His 
words are worthy of being quoted in full: 


Samuel Hopkins Willey—founder, prophet, seer, beholder! 
It has been given to you to see the hilltop of vision 
transmuted into the mountain of fulfillment, and a dim 
focused future dissolve upon the screen into a firm, clear 
present. The prayer you offered when the foundations of 
this commonwealth were laid has found its largest answer 
through the institution you established. Your life is a bond 
between our beginning and our present, between your dream 
and its embodiment, between your prayer and its answer. 

Upon you, the foremost benefactor of California, first 
citizen of the State, I confer the degree of Doctor of Laws. 


Dr. Willey was the founder of Howard Church, 
the first New School Church in San Francisco. When 
he came to this city he found tents and cottages in 
Happy Valley and a few Christian people. On May 
19, 1850, he held Sunday School, with half a dozen 
scholars, in a carpenter’s shop, and in the afternoon 
he preached his first sermon. Four men were found 
who were ready to unite in organizing a New School 
Presbyterian Church: ‘Thomas Nevins, Samuel 
Newton, James Stuart and John D. Mumford. 


These new members came from Buffalo, New York; 


54 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


from San Antonio, Texas; from Sidney, New South 
Wales; and from Richmond, Virginia. This church, 
like every other Protestant church organized in Calli- 
fornia, drew its membership from every section of 
the nation and from many quarters of the earth. 
On September 15, 1850, the church was organized 
and called Howard Street Presbyterian Church. 
Later, when the church was moved to another street, 
the word “‘street’’ was dropped. Mr. Howard gave 
the lot for the building and both church and street 
perpetuate the donor’s name. John D. Mumford 
and Samuel Newton were elected ruling elders. 
From the very outset this church numbered among 
its members and adherents some of the most in- 
fluential business and professional men. By the 
summer of 1851 the number of women in the com- 
munity was rapidly increasing, and many of these, 
of warm heart and consecrated life, shared in the 
work of this pioneer church. Its house of worship 
was dedicated on June 16, 1851, and on the following 
Sabbath, at the hour of service, the church was de- 
stroyed by fire. ‘The loss by this fire was stated in 
a volume called “The Annals of San Francisco,” 
published in 1854, to be moderately estimated at 
from ten to twelve millions of dollars. Many of the 
best friends of the church were among the heaviest 
sufferers; on Howard Church the loss pressed 
heavily. There was no Church Building Society to 
which to appeal in an emergency, and it was im- 
possible to ask for new subscriptions from the friends 
of the church. But at this time two members of the 
Board of Trustees stepped forward and offered to 
sign a note as security. ‘Thus the money was ob- 
tained and the work went on. 





; 
) 
| 


‘THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 55 


It is true that the Christian congregations were 
small and that their places of worship were lacking 
in dignity and were erected upon inexpensive, that 
is to say upon inconspicuous locations. But no one can 
over-estimate their value in the public life of that 
period. In this connection it is interesting to note 
an editorial in the Alta California of June of this 
year: 


The state of public morals is so lax, crime so bold, law so 
impotent, life so insecure, property so unprotected, that the 
support of the pulpit and all the influences which it can 
possibly exert ought to be given at the present crisis to the 
correction of existing evils. The question is one of life and 
death, of success or ruin, of progress or destruction. 


The evangelical pulpit of San Francisco at this 
time consisted of some half dozen young ministers, 
most of them inexperienced, but all of them deeply 
sincere and courageous. Those were the days of the 
first Vigilance Committee, and all the Protestant 
ministers of the city were lending the influence of 
their voices to the cause of justice and order. The 
Howard Church gained steadily in numbers and 
spiritual power. Dr. Willey himself afterwards be- 
came a Congregational minister, though he never 
felt that he had departed very far from Presbyterian- 
ism, and in later life he wrote the history of his first 
pastorate from 1850 to 1862. Some of Dr. Willey’s 
successors in this church have been among the best 
known ministers of the country, such as the Rev. A. 
E. Kittredge, D.D., the Rev. Henry Martin Scudder, 
D.D., the Rev. Hugh Smith Carpenter, D.D., the 
Rev. A. S. Fiske, D.D., the Rev. Robert MacKenzie, 
D.D. The late Bishop John H. Newman, of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, once acted as stated 


56 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


supply for a period of three months. Later we shall 
have occasion to refer to this church again. In our 
present reference to Dr. Willey we should note that 
he became the first vice-President of the University 
of California, an office which at the time of his 
election in 1862 carried with it the chief executive 
responsibility, and died full of years and full of hon- 
ors in 1914. 

The Rev. John W. Douglas located in San Jose 
in the fall of 1849 and organized the Independent 
Presbyterian Church, afterwards the First Church, 
in the old adobe Court House. Among the original 
members of this church was a Mr. Thomas Douglas, 
a namesake but not a relative of the minister, who 
was one of its staunch supporters. This church be- 
came one of the best and most influential in the state. 
It too has had a great succession of ministers. 

We come now to the Rev. Frederick Buel, who 
arrived in San Francisco on October 10, 1849, as 
a lay member of the church, the representative of 
the American Bible Society, bearing a letter of intro- 
duction from the Rev. Samuel I. Prime, one of the 
secretaries of the Society, to Dr. Williams. He was 
a graduate of Yale and well verse¢l in theology, but 
the Society thought that possibly as a layman he 
would make his way with the circulation of the Scrip- 
tures more readily than if he were ordained. The 
Church in California thought otherwise; and in order 
to give him increase of authority in his work, as well 
as freedom in preaching and administering the sacra- 
ments, he was licensed by the newly formed Presby- 
tery of California, and shortly afterwards, in July, 
1850, he was ordained to the ministry, the first to 
receive ordination in any branch of the Protestant 





FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SAN JOSE 





THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 5 


Church in California. It should be added that, ow- 
ing to his health being impaired at the time of his 
graduation from Yale, his theological training had 
been casual. Most of his religious knowledge had 
been picked up while voyaging on a whaling ship. 
In this his situation was not unlike that of many of 
the young men who, without having had eastern 
training for the ministry, were subsequently ordained 
in the west. For many years he made an excellent 
representative of the Bible Society in San Francisco, 
enlarging its work in many directions, preaching in 
nearby churches and assisting in the founding of 
some of them. In 1866 he preached for the Rev. 
James Macdonald at the organization of the West- 
minister Church in Sacramento. In 1874 he joined 
the church above. 

The Rev. William Wallace Brier arrived in Cali- 
fornia in 1850, and his earliest work would seem 
to have been that of itinerating among the mining 
camps. It is, unhappily, impossible now to trace all 
the activities of some of the pioneers of 1849 and 
1850. Mr. Brier was himself appointed the histor- 
ian of the Synod of Alta California in 1858, and 
it would appear that he prepared a large amount of 
historical manuscript. This manuscript was com- 
pletely lost until shortly before the fire of 1906, when 
his daughter, a Mrs. Moore, discovered it among 
some old possessions. But before it could be used 
it was destroyed in the great fire shortly after the 
date of finding. If it still existed it would probably 
make clear to us several points upon which now we 
have no light. On September 7, 1850, Mr. Brier 
arrived at Marysville, where he found ‘fifteen hun- 
dred or two thousand people .. . about twenty 


58 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


families and five hundred houses and tents, more than 
half of them cloth. . .. There were some large 
frame buildings, much dust and many fleas.” He 
was kindly received by Mr. Say, a wholesale mer- 
chant, who put up notices that there would be preach- 
ing the next day, September 8. His journal states: 


Preached according to appointment at half-past nine in 
the morning under a large oak tree on the Plaza, near the 
bank of the Yuba. Seventy men were sitting upon logs, 
ox-yokes and parts of wagons. I took my position on a 
little eminence and commenced to sing a hymn. From every 
direction gathered crowds of care-worn men, in whose coun- 
tenances could be seen thoughts of loved ones far away and 
remembrances of Sabbaths of rest, all listening respectfully 
to the preaching. At night in the Court House, a rough 
unlined wooden building on the corner of E and 
Third streets. It stood quite beyond the limits of the town. 
. » » On November 24, 1850, I organized the first Presby- 
terian Church of Marysville, consisting of nine members. 
It was a day of much prayer and great solemnity, confession 
and penitence. 


At the time when Mr. Brier came to Marysville 
the rich variety of the resources of California was 
not yet appreciated even by the men who were on 
the ground. A good many people supposed that 
Marysville would not be a permanent town. One 
prominent merchant refused to contribute towards 
the erection of a building, saying that he would not 
give his money to erect a church “‘for the Indians to 
inhabit,” that “in three years California would be 
deserted.” ‘he Rev. J. H. Warren, who was pres- 
ent at a service held in the Court House, describes 
the sordid interior of the forlorn and unfinished 
room and the shabby desk which served as a pulpit. 
The building was out of the city on the prairie where 





Rev. W. W. BrieER REy. IsAAc BRAYTON 


(First Pastor) (Second ) 
Rey. E. B. WALSworTH Rev. J. HENRY Bropr 
(Third) (Fourth) 


THE MARYSVILLE CHURCH AND ITS EARLY PASTORS 
From a Photograph taken in Marysville about 1862 





THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 59 


men went a-gunning and in the midst of the sermon 
some careless gunner gave the congregation the con- 
tents of his fowling-piece through the window. On 
August 3, 1851, the new church building was dedi- 
cated. The Rev. T. Dwight Hunt preached, tak- 
ing for his theme: ‘‘The Religion of the Bible the 
Only Basis of Our Government and Institutions.” 
Mr. Brier preached at the church regularly until 
March, 1852, when, his health declining, he left the 
place. Later he became Synodical Missionary and 
the founder of several churches. 

Another pioneer of the first period, but a little 
later than those already described, was the Reverend 
Isaac H. Brayton, who as preacher, teacher and 
editor, occupied a high place among his brethren. 
He was a graduate of Hamilton College and Auburn 
Theological Seminary and arrived in California, via 
Cape Horn, late in the winter of 1850-51. In the 
spring of the latter year he succeeded the Reverend 
J. W. Douglas as pastor of the San Jose Church, 
and a year later removed to Marysville. His health 
failing in 1853, he returned to the east for a time, 
but found himself again in San Francisco in 1856, 
first as the supply of the First Congregational 
Church, and then as the editor of The Pacific, a 
position which he held during the exacting times of 
the Vigilance Committee. He wielded a bold and 
facile pen and made his paper a force. After several 
years of editorship he became connected with the 
College School at Oakland, where the chief work of 
his life was accomplished. 

The Reverend Nelson Slater came to California 
in 1850. He was a graduate of Union College and 
Auburn Seminary. After remaining in Placerville 


60 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


for nearly a year he removed to Sacramento in 1851. 
He was an educator rather than a preacher. For 
several years he was County Superintendent of 
Schools. At a later date he became a member of 
Sacramento Presbytery and its Stated Clerk for 
many years. He died in 1886. 

Besides these there are other names concerning 
which our information is scanty, chiefly due to the 
fact that most of the early work was unorganized 
and thus contained in no ecclesiastical records. 
There is, for instance, the Reverend William G. 
Canders, who evidently made a deep impression 
upon his brethren in the church and who was among 
the arrivals of 1849. When the Synod of the Pacific 
was organized he appears as a member of the 
Presbytery of Stockton. Inasmuch as he was not a 
minister of any organized church of this Presbytery 
it is evident that his work was that of itinerating 
through the region of the mines. He appears as a 
member of four of the committees of the Synod and 
is prominent in discussion of matters of education. 
He died in 1856. ; 

In the list of pioneer ministers given by Dr. James 
Woods there appears also the name of Francis Hart, 
who was listed among the arrivals in 1849, but who 
never reached California as he died on the overland 
journey. 

We now turn to the brethren of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church who were present at the organi- 
zation of their first Presbytery on April 4, 1851, in 
Santa Clara County. These ministers were the 
Reverends John E. Braley, Cornelius Yager, Wesley 
Gallimore, James Smalland Licentiate John M. Cam- 
eron. None of these brethren was pastor to a regu- 


THE PIONEERS OF FORTY-NINE 61 


larly organized congregation, but among them they 
divided the country with a view to covering as many 
settlements as possible in the provision of Gospel 
ordinances. The Cumberland pioneers were intensely 
earnest and practical. And wherever they moved 
throughout the country they brought to the people 
a sense of spiritual reality and high moral purpose. 


CHAPTER V 
FIRST PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 
TE far we have been dealing with the indi- 


vidual ministers, as they arrived in California, 
and their spheres of labor. If it is true, as Professor 
Seeley has insisted, that the only way whereby to 
test the importance of an historical event is by its 
pregnancy, we are fully justified in giving the space 
we have given to the beginnings of the Presbyterian 
Church in California. Now we are coming to the 
time when these smaller organizations are coalescing 
to form larger ones; first, Presbyteries; then, Synods. 

The earliest of the Presbyteries to be organized 
was the New School Presbytery of San Francisco, 
which was formed by the General Assembly in 
session in Philadelphia in May, 1849. It was com- 
posed of Ministers Timothy Dwight Hunt, of the 
Presbytery of Genesee; John Waldo Douglas, of 
the Third Presbytery of New York; and Samuel 
Hopkins Willey, of the Fourth Presbytery of New 
York. 

The Presbytery was placed under the care of the 
Synod of New York and Jersey. It first met for 
organization at Monterey on September 20, 1849, 
and in regular semi-annual session in San Francisco, 
on October 17, 1849. It was the first ecclesiastical 
body to convene in California. The Reverend 
Timothy Dwight Hunt was the convenor, and the 

62 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 63 


Reverend Samuel H. Willey was elected the first 
Moderator. Inasmuch as the church organized at 
San Jose by the Reverend John W. Douglas was 
known as the Independent Presbyterian Church and 
did not come under control of Presbytery until 1858, 
the Presbytery at this time had no churches under its 
care. After the organization of the Congregational 
Association in 1852, the two bodies met at the same 
time and place for mutual counsel and aid. 

On May 29, 1849, the first Presbytery of the Old 
School, the Presbytery of California, was erected by 
action of the General Assembly, meeting in Pitts- 
burg, Pennsylvania. Its action is as follows: 


Tuesday morning, May 29, 9 o'clock, 1849. 
The committee on bills and overtures reported. 


Overture No. 34.—An overture from the Board of Mis- 
sions, asking the Assembly to erect a Presbytery in Califor- 
nia. ‘The committee recommended the following resolutions, 
which were adopted, viz.: 


1. Resolved, That the Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, Jr., 
of the Presbytery of Long Island, the Rev. Albert Williams 
of the Presbytery of Raritan, the Rev. James Woods of the 
Presbytery of East Alabama, and the Rev. Francis Hart 
of the Presbytery of Missouri, are hereby detached from their 
respective presbyteries, and constituted a presbytery, to be 
called the Presbytery of California; that they meet for the 
purpose of being organized at such time and place as the 
brethren themselves may appoint, and that the Rev. Sylvester 
Woodbridge, Jr., if present, or in his absence, the oldest 
minister present, preside until a moderator be chosen. 

2. Resolved, That this presbytery, when formed, be 
attached for the present to the Synod of New York. 


Although the First Church of Benicia and the 
First Church of San Francisco had been already 


1G, A. Min., 1849, pages 264-265. 


64 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


organized, as we have seen, the General Assembly 
did not know this and thus no reference is made to 
these churches which at once came under care of 
Presbytery. The first meeting, which it was in- 
tended should have taken place in the fall of 1849, 
was necessarily postponed by the delay in arrival of 
the Reverend James Woods. And the Reverend 
Francis Hart, whose name is mentioned in the organ- 
izing action, never reached California, as he suc- 
cumbed to the hardships of the overland route and 
died on the way. The first meeting of the new 
Presbytery was held in Benicia on February 20, 
1850. [he ministers present were the Reverends 
Woodbridge, Williams and Woods. The Reverend 
William G. Canders, who was still a member of the 
Presbytery of Maury, Tennessee, was invited to sit 
as a corresponding member. The churches of 
Benicia and San Francisco were received and en- 
rolled. Mr. Chauncey E. Wetmore was present as 
representative elder from the Benicia church. Its 
sessions, lasting two days, were chiefly occupied in 
discussion of the state of religion in California and 
in making plans to meet the needs of the field. A 
call from the First Church of Benicia was placed in 
the hands of Dr. Woodbridge, who was formally 
installed on the second day of the meeting. This 
was the first installation in any organized Protestant 
Church in the state. 

When the Presbytery of California met again in 
the following April it enrolled the First Presbyterian 
Church of Stockton. At its next meeting in Septem- 
ber, 1850, it sustained a call from the First Presby- 
terian Church of San Francisco to the Reverend 
Albert Williams, who was duly installed. This was 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 65 


the second installation of a Protestant pastor in Cali- 
fornia. 

We turn now to the organic minute of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian Church in California, of the 
date of April 4, 1851: Whereas there has not been 
any Presbyterial organization of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church in California up to the present 
time, and no information having been obtained that 
the General Assembly of said church has taken any 
special action in the regard to such an organization 
in this state (or if there be such an action, for want 
of the knowledge of the same), and of the great 
necessity of such an organization, we, John E. 
Braley, Cornelius Yager and Wesley Gallimore, 
being regularly ordained ministers of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian Church and all having letters of 
dismissal and recommendation from our respective 
Presbyteries, against whom there now exist no 
charges of immorality or heresy, do this day proceed 
to constitute ourselves into a Presbytery to be known 
by the name of the California Presbytery of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 

This action took place at the home of the Rev- 
erend John E. Braley in Santa Clara County. We 
read further that “Brother Braley was chosen 
Moderator and Brother Wesley Gallimore, clerk.” 
There were no representatives present and no 
churches under the care of Presbytery. In addition 
to those already named there was present the Rev- 
erend James Small, who applied to be received as a 
member of the Presbytery but had no regular letter 
of dismissal from the Presbytery to which he had be- 
longed, but the California Presbytery being satisfied 
that he was regularly ordained and in good stand- 


66 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ing in the Tennessee Presbytery, and because of “‘the 
peculiarity of the circumstances surrounding the C. 
P. Church in California, received Brother James 
Small without a letter of dismissal and recommenda- 
tion.” Brother Small being present was invited to 
take his seat as a member of this Presbytery, and 
did so. ‘There was also received a Mr. John M. 
Cameron, a licentiate, formerly under the care of 
the Iowa Presbytery. On the following day the con- 
eregation of Martinez petitioned to be taken under 
care of Presbytery, which was done, and Mr. Nathan 
Jones, representative of the Martinez congregation, 
took his seat as a member of Presbytery. But the 
Martinez Church shared the fate of the Benicia 
Church, and here too the first organized church 
taken under the care of a new Presbytery ultimately 
ceased to exist. It is many years since there has 
been a Presbyterian church in Martinez. A congre- 
gation at Napa (spelled by the good clerk 
Nappy’), was also taken under care of Presbytery. 
Most of the discussion which occupied the time of 
Presbytery was concerning the method whereby the 
Cumberland Church could render the largest pos- 
sible service in the supply of the ordinances of re- 
ligion to the new communities of the state. Not all 
the men who sat in the first Cumberland Presbytery 
were college graduates. Indeed it is doubtful 
whether all of them had had a high school education. 
But it is certain that they were all deeply serious in 
their Christian convictions and utterly devoted to the 
progress of the Gospel of Christ. The whole 
method of their organization was characteristic of 
the Cumberland Church of the day, which depended 


not so much upon ecclesiastical regularity as upon 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 67 


the vitality of the impulse of the spirit of God which 
issued in a glowing, self-propagating enthusiasm. 
Those early preachers had within them a fire which 
would not stay, and most of them were sustained by 
the meagerest of financial resources. ‘They adopted 
an order for the supply of the religious needs of 
their territory. ‘The Reverend James M. Small was 
to labor all his time north of the bay of San Fran- 
cisco, especially about Napa. Mr. Cameron was to 
supply the Martinez congregation with preaching as 
often as circumstances would permit. ‘The Rever- 
ends Braley, Yager and Gallimore were to supply 
the country south of the bay of San Francisco as far 
as practicable, preaching and organizing congrega- 
tions. It was also resolved to present a memorial 
to the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian Church setting forth the destitute condition of 
the state in regard to the means of grace. 

The next meeting of the Cumberland Presbytery 
was held in Martinez on October 3, 1851, when 
newly organized congregations at Oak Grove and 
Bodega Valley were received and the Reverend 
Welsey Gallimore elected commissioner to the next 
General Assembly. Nathaniel Jones was chosen 
elder commissioner. The report on the state of re- 
ligion was hopeful and indicated that there was a 
deep desire on the part of large numbers of the 
people for the ministrations of religion. 

We turn now again to the Presbytery of California 
of the Old School. The General Assembly of 1852 
divided this Presbytery into two, the second one to 
be known as the Presbytery of Stockton. With these 
two Presbyteries and the addition of the Presbytery 
of Oregon, which had been erected in 1851, the 


68 Tuer PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Synod of the Pacific was now organized. ‘The fol- 
lowing is the organic minute of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of 
America in session in the city of Charleston, South 
Carolina, May 22, 1852: 


The Committee on Bills and Overtures reported Over- 
ture, No. 4, a memorial from the Presbytery of California, 
requesting the formation of a new Presbytery, and a new 
Synod. 

The Committee recommend to the Assembly the adoption 
of the following minute: 


The Rev. Robert McCoy is transferred from the’ Presby- 
tery of Memphis to the Presbytery of California. 

The Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, Jr., and the Rev. James 
Woods, both of the Presbytery of California, and the Rev. 
W. G. Canders, of the Presbytery of Maury, together with 
the churches of Benicia and Stockton, are constituted a new 
Presbytery, to be called the Presbytery of Stockton. ‘The 
said Presbytery shall hold its first meeting in the First 
Presbyterian Church in Stockton, California, on the third 
‘Tuesday of August next, at 7 o'clock P.M.; and be opened 
with a sermon by the Rev. S. Woodbridge, Jr., who shall 
preside until a moderator be chosen. 

It is the purpose of this minute to prepetuate the Presby- 
tery of California, with the remaining ministers and churches 
belonging thereto. The said Presbytery will hold its next 
stated meeting on the third ‘Tuesday of August next, in the 
First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, at 7 o’clock 
P.M.; to be opened with a sermon by the Rev. R. McCoy, 
who shall preside until a moderator be chosen. 

The Presbyteries of California, Oregon, and Stockton, 
are hereby erected into a new Synod, to be called the Synod 
of the Pacific; and for that purpose the Presbyteries of 
California and Oregon are detached from the Synod of New 
York. The Syond, created by this minute, shall hold its first 
meeting in the First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, 
on the third Tuesday of October next, at 7 o’clock P.M., and 
shall be opened with a sermon by the oldest minister present, 
who shall preside until a moderator be chosen. 


First: PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 69 


The Presbyteries herein named shall present their records 
to the Synod of the Pacific for examination, from the date 
of their last approval by the Synod of New York. 

The Synod shall, at its first meeting, settle definitively the 
territorial limits of its several Presbyteries. 

The report was adopted. 


In accordance with this action of the General 
Assembly the Synod of the Pacific held its first meet- 
ing in the First Presbyterian Church of San Francisco 
on the third ‘Tuesday of October, 1852, and was 
opened with a sermon by the Reverend Albert Wil- 
liams, the oldest minister present, on the words of 
I Timothy ii, 15: “The Church of the living God, 
the pillar and ground of the truth.” The Presby- 
teries of California and Stockton were present in 
full strength and Oregon was represented by one 
of its famous pioneer missionaries, the Reverend 
Robert Robe. Committees were appointed to cover 
the full range of the activities of the church. The 
boundaries of the Presbyteries were fixed as follows: 
The boundaries of the Presbytery of Oregon became 
the limits of the Territory of Oregon. ‘The dividing 
line between the Presbyteries of California and 
Stockton was a line from the sea through the waters 
of the Bay of San Francisco to the Coast Range 
Mountains, and thence south to the limits of the 
State of California. 

A collection for incidental expenses was taken, 
each member contributing one dollar. The total 
amount of eight dollars was placed in the hands of 
the treasurer. Most of this money was expended 
upon the minute book from which these records are 
taken. 

The chief business of the Synod was the discussion 
of the state of religion within its bounds. We can- 


70 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


not do better than quote at considerable length the 
narrative which was spread upon the record: 


In the religious aspect of the field embraced within the 
bounds of the Synod, there is much encouragement. It is 
no small ground of thankfulness to us, that at so early a day 
in the history of this country, there should have been organ- 
ized a Synod of our branch of the Church. 

We are grateful to God, that the church has kept pace 
with the tide of population which has lately set with so great 
rapidity towards these shores; that, side by side with the 
institutions of the State, have risen the institutions of Re- 
ligion; that in the rush of men for the treasures of the world 
came the ministers of the word, to cheer with the consola- 
tions of the gospel the disappointed, the sick, and the dying; 
to lift up the voice of wisdom in the chief places of con- 
course, even ‘“‘at the coming in of the doors,” proclaiming 
that her fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold, and 
her revenue than choice silver. 

From the reports of the Presbyteries, we learn that there 
is generally a good attendance upon the ministry of the word, 
and an increasing number of communicants both by letter 
and profession. Several of our churches are provided with 
commodious places of worship; with some the increased 
attendance of late has made the place too strait for the con- 
gregation. In Oregon our churches are located among a 
sparse population; but the pastors are encouraged with the 
hope that the immigration of this year will increase the 
attendance on public worship, and add to the number of 
communicants. In many of our congregations flourishing 
Sabbath Schools have been sustained. Donations have been 
freely made to the benevolent institutions of the church. 
Bibles and tracts have been extensively circulated. We are 
happy to report that during the present season four clergy- 
men of our church have arrived from the East, some of whom 
are already located, and the remainder are looking for fields 
of pastoral labor in this region. 

We can record no extensive outpouring of the Spirit, 
attendant upon the preaching of the word; yet we rejoice, 
that, through the good hand of our God upon us, the ap- 
pointed means of grace are so early established among the 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 71 


population, preparatory, as we trust, to the future extensive 
triumphs of the gospel. 

In this connection, we bespeak an earnest and attentive 
consideration of the work before us, which yet remains to be 
accomplished. In the headlong haste which has character- 
ized the immigration to this country, and the tumult and 
disorder incident to the hurried settlement, not only have 
the rules of morality and good order, which should character- 
ize society, been set aside and neglected; but the members of 
the church of Christ have too frequently proved recreant 
to their high calling. These must be won back to the fold 
of the visible church, and incited once more to exhibit, in 
their conduct and conversation, the graces of religion. “To 
the community at large must the gospel be proclaimed, with 
all its blessings. Here it should not be forgotten, how large 
a proportion of our population are ignorant of the English 
language; to them the word should be preached, that “in 
their own tongue they may hear the wonderful works of 
God.” The French and Germans in our midst are numbered 
by thousands; there is no one among us to break unto them 
the word of life. “Those speaking the Spanish language have 
manifested an earnest desire to possess themselves of the word 
of God; might not a minister of the word, speaking their 
language, in the use of a wise discretion, take advantage of 
this spirit of inquiry in their minds, and find by it an effectual 
door opened for the preaching of the gospel? 

We are now expecting a missionary who shall labor among 
the Chinese population. We have anticipated his arrival 
with much interest, since for some time this portion of our 
field seemed waiting for the laborer. The wants of fifteeen 
thousand heathen, ignorant of the gospel, will be the bur- 
den laid upon him; one too great for his single arm to bear, 
but we trust he will be assisted, not only by the prayers and 
sympathies of the church, but the special grace of God. 


Then follows an extensive statement of the needs 
of work among the Indian population, the Pueblo 
Indians, the Pimos and the Maricopas, many of the 
latter of whom were still observing the rites of the 
Aztecs. Looking eastward across the summit of 


472 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the Sierra Nevada, they saw the incoming tide of 
settlers who would fill the fertile valleys and the 
river bottoms of the eastern side of the mountains. 
Beyond these they saw the Mormon population, some 
of them already restless over the deception which 
they felt had been practiced upon them. With 
statesmanlike vision they urged the church to gird 
itself for the new tasks. And then they turned home 
again prayerfully to consider themselves and their 
responsibilities for the work that lay immediately 
before them. 


In this broad and important field, the ministers and 
churches of this Synod are called, by the providence of God, 
to labor. We need to gird up our loins and prepare our- 
selves for the work before us. ‘The harvest is plenteous, but 
the laborers are few. But we are not dependent upon our- 
selves alone; the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers. 
Nothing will conduce so much to supply the demand in this 
field, as the harmonious action of the different members of 
the church of Christ, one in their union to their great Head, 
one in the common bond of Christian charity, one in a com- 
mon etfort to advance the interests of Zion, and one in 
the reward which shall crown their labors. 


In respect of numbers, physical equipment and 
financial resources the pioneer Synod entered upon 
its career ina humble way. But it was destined unto 
ereatness. Wherever in this new land men would 
make homes for themselves, there the church would 
go with them. Even in the day of small things it 
was ever confident in the power of the living truth 
and the supernatural grace of the divine Saviour. 
And this confidence has not been disappointed. ‘The 
present strength of the Synod is the triumphant re- 
sponse to the faith of its founders. 

The Synod of 1853 met in Benicia, and there- 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 73 


after, for the following two years, in the First 
Church of San Francisco. In spite of the wide dis- 
tance and the expense of travel involved, Dr. Wil- 
liams, during his San Francisco pastorate, secured 
the attendance of the representatives of the Presby- 
tery of Oregon, so that until 1857 a quorum was not 
lacking. : 

In 1856 the Presbytery of Benicia was erected by 
the Old School Assembly, thus giving four Presby- 
teries to the Old School Synod. The new Presbytery 
was constituted by transferring the Reverends 
Sylvester Woodbridge and Benjamin B. Bonham 
from the Presbytery of Stockton and the Reverend 
James Woods from the Presbytery of California 
into the new organization. It had under its care 
the churches of Benicia and Santa Rosa. By the 
erection of this new Presbytery it was intended that 
in the event of the Presbytery of Oregon being un- 
able to be represented at any given meeting of Synod 
that meeting should not fail to be held for the lack 
of a quorum, there now being three other Presby- 
teries within the bounds of the Synod. But it is the 
irony of history that in the first two years follow- 
ing the erection of the Presbytery of Benicia no 
meetings of Synod were held because of the absence 
of representatives not only from Oregon but also 
from the Stockton Presbytery. 

It is time for us now to turn our attention to the 
New School church, which was preparing to enlarge 
its organization. On April 7, 1857, the Presbytery 
of San Francisco held its meeting in the Methodist 
Church of Petaluma. The chief business of the 
meeting was the appointment of a committee con- 


sisting of the Reverends E. B Walsworth, S. H. 


74. [He PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Willey and S. S. Harmon to prepare an overture to 
the Assembly asking for the organization of two new 
Presbyteries in the State, to be called the Presbytery 
of Sierra Nevada and the Presbytery of Contra 
Costa, the three Presbyteries together to constitute 
the Synod of Alta California. In response to this 
request favorable action was taken by the Assembly, 
which met at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 21. The only 
change made was that one of the new Presbyteries 
was called San Jose instead of Contra Costa. The 
Presbytery of Sierra Nevada was made up of the fol- 
lowing ministers: Silas S. Harmon, Laurentine 
Hamilton, Walter Frear and Edward B. Walsworth. 
It had under its care the following organized 
churches: Columbia, Sonora, Placerville and Marys- 
ville. It was directed to hold its first meeting in 
Sacramento on October 6, 1857. The Presbytery 
of San Jose, erected at the same time, was constituted 
by the following ministers: James Pierpont, William 
W. Brier, Eli Corwin and Albert F. White, together 
with the churches of Oakland, Alhambra (now Cen- 
terville), Eden (now Alvarado), andSan Jose. Also, 
its first meeting was to be held at the same time and 
place as that of the other Presbytery. In subsequent 
chapters we shall have to deal with the previous 
history of some of the churches herein named, and 
the later history of the Presbytery as a whole. 
According to the instructions of the Assembly, the 
new Synod of Alta California met in the Congre- 
gational Church of Sacramento on April 6, 1857, in 
the evening, and was opened by a sermon preached 
by the Reverend Eli Corwin of the Presbytery of 
San Jose. His text was: ‘‘We are the circumcision 
who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS 75 


Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil. iu, 
Be! 

Beside the ministers of the new Presbytery already 
named above there were present the following min- 
isters from the original Presbytery of San Francisco: 
The Reverends S. H. Willey and E. S. Lacey. There 
were absent the Reverends I. H. Brayton, John 
Waldo Douglas, John Henry Booth and David 
McClure, of San Francisco, and A. F. White, of 
San Jose. There were now two New School 
churches in San Francisco, Howard Street and Du- 
pont Street, both of which were under the care of 
the Presbytery. 

The matters which chiefly occupied the attention 
of Synod were the increase of the ministry on the 
coast, the possibility of preparing young men from 
the coast for the gospel ministry, general questions 
of education and Sabbath observance. On the last 
named topic it is interesting to read the minute which 
expresses the gratification of Synod at the increase 
of Sabbath observance in the mines and the hope 
that soon a law securing the suspension of business 
on the Sabbath may be enacted. Steps were taken 
to circulate petitions in favor of such a measure. 
But the hope remains a hope, unto this day. 

In the following year, owing to the lack of a 
quorum, no meeting of Synod was held. In 185g it 
met in Howard Church, San Francisco. Down to 
1870 the New School Synod and the Congregational 
State Association met at the same time and place for 
mutual counsel and aid. The Pacific, a religious 
newspaper, was published under their joint control. 
Later, by mutual agreement, it was transferred to the 
Association. At the Reunion of the two churches, 


76 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Old and New School, in 1870, the Synod of Alta 
California, along with the Synod of the Pacific, was 
merged into the new Synod of the Pacific, which be- 
came their legal successor. The name Synod of the 
Pacific was changed to that of Synod of California 
1892. 

Thus the Synod of Alta California started in 
1857 swith: three > Presbyteries. 3) in) 1.00 3;0mi neers 
sponse to a petition from the Presbytery of Nevada, 
there was organized the Presbytery of Washoe, 
which included newly organized churches in the ‘Ter- 
ritory of Nevada. As we shall later have to deal in 
a separate chapter with the history of Presbyterian- 
ism in Nevada, we will make no further reference 
to these churches at this point. 

We now turn to the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church which held the first meeting of the Sacra- 
mento Synod in Sonoma, October 11, 1860. By this 
time the Cumberland church upon the coast contained 
four Presbyteries, namely, California, the Pacific, 
Sacramento and Oregon, which hitherto had had a 
connection with Synods in the older sections of the 
church. Early in 1860 the three Presbyteries in 
California concurred in memorializing the General 
Assembly of the Cumberland Church to erect a new 
Synod which would convene later in the year. 
Upon the Assembly’s favorable action the meeting 
of the Sacramento Synod was held. ‘There were 
present eighteen ministers and nine elders. Only 
three ministers were absent from California but 
none of, the eleven ministers of the Oregon Presby- 
tery was able to be present. The matters which 
occupied them chiefly were a discussion as to the 
methods of promoting dignity and uniformity of 


First PRESBYTERIES AND SYNODS £7, 


worship throughout the bounds of the Synod, the 
possibility of publishing a church paper, which all 
the members agreed would be of the greatest value 
in the promotion of religious work, a report on Sab- 
bath observance which was very similar to that made 
at the first meeting of the Synod of Alta California, 
the erection of a new Presbytery in the State of 
Oregon, and a discussion upon the condition of re- 
ligion within the limits of the Synod. Upon the topic 
last named we read in the report which was adopted: 


There is just and great cause for the deepest humiliation 
before God in view of the widespread moral dearth that 
prevails in many parts of the bounds of Synod....A 
majority of the ministers are comparatively idle and inactive. 
In this there is something wrong. Ministers perhaps have 
failed in a proper manner to impress upon the minds of 
the people they have served the necessity of ministerial sup- 
port. Your committee would earnestly hope and pray that 
there may be a general awakening upon this important 
subject. | 


From its very inception the Cumberland Church 
was strongly evangelistic and some of its most signal 
gains were made in fields which at the time of their 
occupation contained least promise. 


CHAPTER VI 
THE FIRST DECADE 


N the fourth chapter we have given some account 
of the churches launched in 1849, together with 
the story of their ministers, and in the fifth chapter 
we have traced the development of the ecclesiastical 
organization until there were in existence Synods of 
all the three Presbyterian bodies which afterwards 
united to form our present church. It has been 
for the purpose of obtaining clarity of statement that 
we have grouped our material in this way. 

In the present chapter we must return to the 
stories of individual men and churches during the 
decade of 1850 to 1860, and in doing this we will 
first give a list of the pioneer churches founded dur- 
ing these years and afterwards deal with some of 
the more important of them. For we cannot always 
measure the importance of the event of the founding 
of a new church at the time when it is founded. 
Some churches which began with large promise for 
the future soon found themselves in completely 
changed environment which made impossible any 
large achievement, and others which began in an insig- 
nificant way found themselves the center of a strong 
forward movement which brought them to power and 
ultimate greatness. Indeed, some of the churches 
established in the first decade, such as the First 
Church of Sacramento and the First Church of Los 


78 


THE First DEcapE 79 


Angeles, actually died out, so that when a new foun- 
dation took place in another decade there were few 
traces of the work of the original church. Others, 


after a long period of apparently futile struggle, 
came to splendid strength. 

In the following table the date of the foundation 
of the several churches is given as completely as is 
now possible. But the records do not always give 
the dates in full. And in the case of a church which 
afterwards vanished, its earlier existence is some- 
times revealed to us only through a casual reference 
in another record. For this list | am chiefly indebted 
to the ‘California Pioneer Decade” of the Reverend 


James Woods. 


1849—Benicia First, April 15, Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, 
D.D., pastor; San Francisco First, May 20, Rev. 
Albert Williams, pastor; San Jose First (originally 
the Independent Presbyterian Church), October 7, 
Rev. John W. Douglas, acting pastor. 

1850—Stockton First, March 17, Rev. James Woods, acting 
pastor; San Francisco Howard (originally Howard 
Street), September 15, Rev. Samuel H. Willey, 
D.D., pastor; Marysville First, November 24, Rev. 
William W. Brier, acting pastor. 

1851—No record of organization found. 

1852—Santa Clara First (originally called Camden Church), 
January 16, Rev. Robert McCoy, pastor; Grass 
Valley First, February 8, Rev. William W. Brier, 
acting pastor. 

1853—San Francisco Welsh, January 16, Rev. William 
Williams, acting pastor; Oakland First, March 26, 
Rev. Edward B. Walsworth, D.D., acting pastor; 
succeeded by Rev. Samuel B. Bell, D.D.; Placerville 
First, May 1, Rev. James Pierpont, acting pastor; 
Sonora First, May 14, Rev. Silas S. Harmon, act- 
ing pastor; Centerville (originally called Alameda 
Church), June 5, Rev. William W. Brier, acting 


So Tue PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


pastor; San Francisco Chinese, November 6, Rev, 
Wm. Speer, D.D. missionary pastor. 

1854—San Francisco Geary Street, June, Rev. James Woods, 
acting pastor; San Francisco Calvary, July 23, 
Rev. “William A Scott, ) Diet LiL ye pastor. 
Eden, October, Rev. Wm. W. Brier, acting pastor 
—reorganized August 19, 1860, as the Alvarado 
Church; Columbia First, December 19, Rev. John 
H. Brodt, acting pastor. 

1855—Napa First (originally the Independent Presbyterian 
Church), January 19, Rev. James Herron (Asso- 
ciate Reformed Church), pastor; Los Angeles, 
March, Rev. James Woods, acting pastor; Cres- 
cent City First, Rev. Edward §. Lacy, acting 
pastor. 

1856—Santa Rosa First, March 17, Rev. James Woods, 
acting pastor; Sacramento First, April 27, Rev. 
Wm. E. Baker, acting pastor; reorganized with 
name Westminster, Jan. 21, 1866, Rev. Jas. S. 
McDonald, D.D. pastor; Georgetown, Rev. David 
McClure, acting pastor. 

1857—Suisun First, December, Rev. James Woods acting 
pastor (the Vacaville congregation divided the time 
and support equally with Suisan); Jamestown, 
Rev. Robt. McCulloch, acting pastor. 

1858—Healdsburg First (O.S.), October 10, Rev. James 
Woods, pastor; Mount Zion, near Petaluma, Rev. 
Jas. Pierpont, acting pastor; Chinese Camp, Rev. 
Robt. McCulloch, acting pastor; St. Helena, Cum- 
berland Presbyterian, Rev. Y. A. Anderson, pastor. 

1859—Healdsburg First (N.S.), Rev. Jas. Pierpont, pastor; 
Martinez, Contra Costa County, First, Rev. David 
McClure, acting pastor; Mendocino First, Novem- 
ber 5, Rev. David McClure, pastor; Stockton, 
Cumberland Presbyterian (now Eastside Church). 


The following also are entitled to recognition as 
pioneer churches, although their formal organiza- 
tion was effected later: Alameda First, January, 
1860, Rev. Geo. Pierson, acting pastor; Two Rock 


THe First DECADE 81 


First, May 17, 1860, Rev. Thos. Fraser, D.D., act- 
ing pastor; Gilroy First, September 16, 1860, Rev. 
Albert F. White, D.D., acting pastor; Arcata First, 
January 1, 1861, Rev. Alex Scott, acting pastor; 
Vallejo First, November 22, 1862, Rev. Nathaniel 
B. Klink, acting pastor. The last named church was 
founded by Rev. S. Woodridge in the early fifties. 
The Rev. N. B. Klink came in 1861, organized it in 
1862, and was its minister until 1883. 

In the case of the original Cumberland churches 
especially it is often difficult to learn the date of the 
organization of any given church, as the minutes of 
the Sacramento Synod do not contain the names of 
the churches, but only those of the ministers and 
elders who composed the membership of the Synod. 

In a previous chapter we have already dealt with 
the founding of the church of 1849, namely, the 
First and Howard Churches of San Francisco, and 
the churches of Benicia and Marysville. Some 
others contained in the above list, by reason of their 
value for the work of the church at large, demand 
some more extended consideration. Such are the 
First Church of Stockton, the First Church of Oak- 
land, the Chinese and Calvary Churches of San 
Francisco, and Santa Rosa. 

On March 17, 1850, the Reverend James Woods, 
of whose qualities of mind and heart we already 
know something, founded the First Church of Stock- 
ton. He entered upon his work in this city shortly 
after his arrival in the state. He sailed up the Sacra- 
mento River on the steamer Captain Sutter and 
landed at Stockton late on Saturday night. The next 
morning Mr. Woods, after much difficulty, found 
temporary shelter in a boarding house kept by a 


82 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Methodist. Here he held his first religious service. 
Later he was able to secure more comfortable lodg- 
ings at the principal hotel in the place. It was a two- 
story wooden building, made by setting on end boards 
of from fourteen to fifteen feet in length. The upper 
story was divided into small rooms on each side of a 
narrow hall, and the partitions of both hall and 
rooms were of white cotton. The lower floor was 
one large room, filled with gambling tables. Each 
table rented for twenty-five dollars a day. Mr. 
Woods’ one thought and desire now was to secure a 
place where public worship might be held. While 
walking through the town his attention was attracted 
to a large sign reading ‘“Temperance Store.” He 
immediately decided that this was just the place. It 
was a cloth structure and in the back end was a black- 
smith shop, divided off by a cloth curtain. The pro- 
prietor of this store was an old sea captain by the 
name of Atwood, and a sincere Christian man. He 
willingly gave Mr. Woods the privilege of using the 
front part of the building for Sunday worship. Here 
he preached his first sermon, which was one of the 
first Protestant sermons, and the very first Presby- 
terian sermon, ever preached in the place. In regard 
to it Mr. Woods says: 


While I was attempting to wield the gospel hammer to 
break in pieces the stony heart of the sinner, the blacksmith 
was wielding his iron hammer to mould a horseshoe into 
shape, and adjust it to the feet of the horse. But the poor 
man had quite a pressing temptation, for the price of shoeing 
a horse in ’49 was eight dollars a shoe, making thirty-two 
dollars if the horse was fully shod. But the ringing of the 
anvil chimed in but sadly with the music of sacred song in 
divine worship on the holy Sabbath. 





THe First DECADE 83 


On the next Sunday Mr. Woods found a more 
commodious room, with no blacksmith shop annexed. 
Seats were made by standing half barrels on end 
and laying boards on them. It was afterward dis- 
covered that these half barrels were full of whiskey. 

These two experiences led Mr. Woods to take 
immediate steps toward erecting a church edifice. 

Hearing that a certain Captain Weber owned a 
large portion of the town and was a very prosperous 
man, Mr. Woods solicited from him the donation of 
a church lot. His response was: ‘‘Get together some 
of the most prominent citizens of the town, select a 
lot, then come to me.” Acting upon this suggestion, 
Mr. Woods consulted with several influential 
citizens. They selected what they supposed to be a 
very choice lot and reported to Captain Weber, who 
very generously donated not only the lot where the 
church long stood, but a quarter of a block. Im- 
mediately upon this donation a meeting was called by 
Mr. Woods, to which were invited all who were 
interested in the erection of a church edifice. 

Considering the moral and social condition of the 
times, and the fact that there appeared but one 
thought uppermost in the minds of all—the amass- 
ing of a fortune—it seems strange that this invita- 
tion should have met with such a ready response. 
Certainly a large throng gathered to greet him on 
the day set. 

In response to the question ‘Shall we build now?” 
all enthusiastically declared themselves ready and 
willing to furnish the money for such a purpose, but 
refused to act on a committee on the plea that they 
had not the time to spare. Money was plentiful, but 
time was precious. Mr. Woods was therefore ap- 


84 [Hr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


pointed a committee of one to attend to everything 
in connection with the enterprise and he was 
bountifully supplied with the means to carry it 
out. 

Mr. Woods now visited San Francisco and pur- 
chased, at a very reasonable figure a frame (ready 
for erection), which had been sent to California 
from New York for a storehouse. It was fifty feet 
long and twenty-six feet wide, and being large and 
strong, it proved an excellent building for a church 
edifice. This structure still stands in Stockton and 
is owned by the African Baptist congregation, who 
purchased it from the Presbyterians and moved it 
to its present location. 

It is needless to say that Mr. Woods was a man 
of energy and determination, for this is plainly shown 
by the fact that he obtained every subscription, em- 
ployed every workman, made every purchase from 
a single nail to the bell on the tower, paid every bill 
and had his church completed and dedicated just ten 
weeks from the time he started out with the subscrip- 
tion paper. The cost of this building was about four 
thousand dollars. Compared with other buildings 
of the time it was quite imposing. 

The pulpit consisted of two upright pieces of un- 
dressed lumber, with a board laid across the top, 
the whole being covered with red cotton. ‘The seats 
were of plain pine. From the windows hung green 
curtains of Chinese manufacture, and lamps burn- 
ing whale oil were fastened to the walls. This, the 
first Presbyterian church built in California and the 
first but one on the Pacific coast, soon became one of 
the largest and most influential in the state. 

We have given this history at length because it is 


THE First DECADE 85 


typical of the stories of many of the pioneer ministers 
of the decade. 

Several of the churches organized at this early 
time were in country districts, among the newly 
arrived ranchers, who were generally of good 
American stock; indeed almost all the new agricul- 
tural settlement made at this period was American. 
It was at a considerably later date that the immi- 
grants from the south of Europe came into the Cali- 
fornia valleys and in some localities largely displaced 
the original American settlers. It was Americans 
who made the country churches in Santa Clara, 
Contra Costa, Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. 
Some of the rural churches organized at that time 
continue to the present day, though most of these are 
weaker now than they were at an earlier date. 
Several of the early rural fields have quite disap- 
peared from the roll of Presbytery; a few began as 
rural fields and have continued as substantial town 
churches. Among the churches founded at this time 
was that of Santa Clara, which was organized by the 
Reverend Albert Williams, and at first called the 
Camden church after the name of the former home, 
in the state of Missouri, of some of the members 
of the congregation. Soon after its organization the 
Reverend Robert McCoy, recently arrived from 
Tennessee, became the minister. In the same year 
a church was organized at Grass Valley, with the 
Reverend William W. Brier as acting pastor, but 
this church survived for less than a year and later a 
Congregational church was established in its place. 

Several churches were organized in 1853, among 
which was the Welsh Church of San Francisco. It 


began with twenty-seven members and the Reverend 


86 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


William Williams became the acting pastor. With 
many vicissitudes in its history it has continued strong 
and fruitful to the present day. It may be said of 
this church, as of many of the churches of foreign 
nationality, that so far from preventing the 
Americanization of their members they virtually 
promote it, inasmuch as they constitute a sort of 
bridge between the life of the old world and that of 
the new, and enable the members of these churches 
to carry over the wealth of old tradition and the 
passionate glow of the devotion of the land they 
have left behind into their new life in America. 

The next in point of time to come into existence 
during this year was the First Presbyterian Church 
of Oakland, which was organized on March 26, 
1853, by the Reverend Edward B. Walsworth. Dr. 
Walsworth was one of a party of eight ministers 
sent to the Pacific Coast in November, 1852, around 
Cape Horn in the clipper ship Trade Wind, by the 
American Home Missionary Society. After a voy- 
age of one hundred and twenty days, during which 
the ship took fire and was in imminent peril of being 
lost with all on board, they arrived on February 24. 
The six who remained in California were W. C. 
Pond))G;G. Hale, James Pierpont, 5) Sharman 
S. B. Bell and E. B. Walsworth. After preaching 
in Oakland for three Sabbaths, Dr. Walsworth went 
to Marysville, where he remained nearly ten years. 
Following Dr. Walsworth the Reverend Samuel B. 
Bell became the pastor of the church, the first meet- 
ing place of which was the Oakland school house. 
In November the church was received under the 
care of the Presbytery of San Francisco. 

The first building was erected in 1854, under 


Tue First DrcapeE 87 


difficulties, for, we are told, “‘a violent norther pros- 
trated the frame in a night.”” Nevertheless the work 
went steadily forward, a small work during the de- 
cade with which we are now occupied but growing 
to be a great work two decades later. This church has 
had a great succession of ministers, including the 
Reverend James Eels, D.D., the Reverend. 8. P. 
Sprecher, D.D., the Reverend Francis A. Horton, 
D.D., the Reverend Robert Coyle, D.D., LL.D., and 
the present pastor, the Reverend Frank Mitchell 
Sisley, D.D., under whose pastorate the church has 
attained its greatest growth. [wo of its past min- 
isters, Drs. Eels and Coyle, have been Moderators 
of the General Assembly. Under Dr. Coyle it held 
a notable evening congregation, when fifteen hun- 
dred people would often crowd the church to its 
capacity, the larger part of the audience being men. 
At this time its membership was the largest of all the 
churches of the state. It has always been a force to 
be reckoned with in the life of the city of Oakland. 

Placerville Church was one of the picturesque 
towns of California which became famous in the 
early days as a center of the mining country. It is 
not far from the historic Sutter Mill. The church 
was organized on May 1, 1853, by the Reverend 
James Pierpont, a missionary of the American 
Home Missionary Society. He had already been 
laboring upon the ground for some two months prior 
to its organization and after this date continued to 
be stated supply until the spring of 1856. The 
church became self-supporting from the beginning 
and is stil] prosperous and effective. 

Sonora Church was also organized in the center 
of the mining country and it too has survived the 


88 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


chances and changes Of the years, but unlike Placer- 
ville it has not found itself with a new history in the 
center of a rich agricultural district. Whereas once 
the population of its vicinity was numbered by the 
thousands today there are just a few sturdy inhabi- 
tants of a mountain town. For a large part of its 
history it has received only casual service. But 
among those who have ministered here was the 
Reverend Hugh Furneaux, famous among the rug- 
ged sky pilots of the Sierra. 

Centerville Church, located in a flourishing farm- 
ing district south of Oakland, and called originally 
the Alvarado Church, was organized on June 5 by 
the Reverend William W. Brier, who became acting 
pastor. It has ministered to a flourishing country 
community and continues as strong and effective 
today as it has been at any time in the past. 

It was on November 6 of the same year that the 
San Francisco Chinese Church was organized, with 
the Reverend William Speer, D.D., one of the great 
leaders of the early history of the coast, as its mis- 
sionary pastor, but inasmuch as it is our purpose 
later to treat in a separate chapter the work of 
Oriental Missions within the Synod we will at this 
time omit further reference to this church. 

Early in 1854 the Reverend James Woods, for 
reasons of health, moved from Stockton to San Fran- 
cisco and here he projected, and under the auspices 
of the First Church effected, the establishment of a 
new mission church which became known as the 
Geary Street Church. The organization did not sur- 
vive, chiefly because Mr. Woods found that he could 
not live in the climate of San Francisco and in 
October of the same year left for Los Angeles. ‘The 


THE First DECADE 89 


minutes of Presbytery do not contain any record of 
this church, though we know from Mr. Woods’ own 
narrative that Dr. Scott preached at the dedication 
of the church early in July. 

We come now to one of the truly great events 
in the progress of Presbyterianism upon the Pacific 
Coast, the organization of Calvary Church, San 
Francisco. By the year 1854 the city had grown 
stronger in population, in financial resources and in 
confidence of spirit. ‘The wealth of the mines had 
immensely enriched it. It had also attracted thither 
such an assemblage of gamblers, confidence men, 
crooks and criminals as have been rarely gathered 
in one place in the history of civilization. If the 
forces of evil were strong, the forces of righteous- 
ness were unabashed. And the better elements of 
the community were resolved upon a higher and finer 
life for their city. Calvary Church started in full 
strength as an expression of the best aspirations of 
some of the most responsible citizens of San Fran- 
cisco. 

About the first of January, 1854, a company of 
eight gentlemen of the city gathered together and 
discussed the religious conditions of their community 
and then sat down and addressed a letter to the Rev- 
erend W. A. Scott, D.D., at that time the outstand- 
ing preacher of the city of New Orleans, inviting 
him to visit San Francisco with a view to the organi- 
zation of another Presbyterian church and promis- 
ing financial aid and every other needed support in 
the new enterprise. Dr. Scott accepted the invitation 
and reached the city on May 19, 1854. He preached 
his first sermon in the Music Hall on Bush Street. 
This sermon was a historical event. Take him alto- 


90 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


gether, the church upon the Pacific Coast has had no 
minister of greater intellect, of more sympathetic 
spirit, and of more outstanding powers of leader- 
ship, than the Reverend William Anderson Scott. 
There was an immediate concerted movement to 
secure the permanency of his ministrations in the 
city. On June 19 there was held a meeting in which 
formal steps were taken to establish a new Presby- 
terian Church and to call Dr. Scott as the pastor. 
The mayor of the city, the Honorable C. G. Gar- 
rison, was chairman of the meeting, and Mr. Jesse 
Crothers was secretary. The committee of twenty 
which was appointed to take the necessary steps in- 
cluded some of the most prominent men in the com- 
munity. It proposed to itself to secure seventy-five 
thousand dollars for the purchase of a lot and the 
erection of a church building. Within two weeks 
half of this amount had been subscribed, but the 
ultimate cost of the enterprise exceeded the estimate 
by a good many thousands of dollars. ‘The lot was 
on the north side of Bush Street between Mont- 
gomery and Sansome Streets. The church was 
finished and Dr. Scott and his family arrived in the 
city in December, 1854. ‘The new church was dedi- 
cated on January 14, 1855, when it was crowded to 
overflowing at both morning and evening services. 
This gave to the city another church of the Old 
School of first class strength and influence. Although 
the larger number of the original sixty-three mem- 
bers of Calvary Church had been for a longer or 
shorter period in some connection with the First 
Church, there was no opposition on the part of the 
earlier organization toward the newer one. The 


Session of First Church had been advised of the 


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THE First DECADE 9! 


proposals for the new organization and had given 
its approval. It had even addressed an official letter 
to Dr. Scott urging his acceptance of the call to San 
Francisco. Dr. Williams also wrote a personal letter 
assuring Dr. Scott of his “acquiescence and cordiality 
in the plan of establishing another Presbyterian 
Church in our city.” 

The subsequent history of the Presbyterian 
church in this state would scarcely be comprehen- 
sible unless we linger for a little time over the record 
of the life of Dr. Scott and endeavor to enter into 
something of the significance of this high-souled 
personality. He was a typical son of the south, born 
at Bedford County, Tennessee, on January 31, 1813. 
Like many other of the illustrious makers of our 
Presbyterian history, he had behind him the genera- 
tions of a Scotch-Irish ancestry. When fifteen years 
of age he became a communicant member of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church. A few months 
later in the same year he was received under the care 
of the Hopewell Presbytery. When seventeen he 
was licensed to preach. And at the same age he be- 
came a chaplain in the Black Hawk War, and later 
wrote out the treaty of peace which was signed by 
Black Hawk and brought the war to a close. One 
of the most daring stories of adventure of which I 
have ever heard was his voyage in a canoe down six 
hundred miles of the Mississippi River, between 
camps of hostile savages, who held both banks, with- 
out opportunity of cooking food, and with no escort 
other than that of a single Indian boy. Such was the 
temper of this young man who began his ministry 
as an evangelist in the wilds of the state of Ten- 
nessee. His was a faith that from the very begin- 


92 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ning glowed with the enthusiasm of love. At twenty 
years of age he was graduated from Cumberland 
College, Kentucky, and one year later, in 1834, he 
completed his theological studies at Princeton Theo- 
logical Seminary. On May 17, 1835, he was 
ordained by the presbytery of Louisiana, and during 
the three following years engaged in Home Mise ca 
work. Then he became the pastor of the Hermitage 
Church on the estate of General Andrew Jackson 
near Nashville, where in the days of retirement of 
the great general and president he enjoyed his inti- 
mate confidence. During the years 1840-3 he was 
pastor of the church at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and 
from 1843 to 1854 pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church of New Orleans. 

With the rise of the City of San Francisco into a 
place of commanding importance, there was a mani- 
fest need of one of the strongest leaders of the 
church in this strategic position to give coherence and 
power to the Christian forces that were emerging in 
the community and to introduce the leaven of 
spiritual beauty into a life where materialism and the 
dreams of gold threatened to exclude every high 
aspiration. Dr. Scott was called to carry this heavy 
responsibility. He became the pastor of Calvary 
Church which was organized on July 24, 1854, with 
sixty-three members, and which under his ministry 
speedily grew to be a great church. It was located 
at the very center of the wild, turbulent life of the 
new city, on Bush Street between Montgomery and 
Sansome Streets. Here for seven years, during the 
most formative period of the growth of the city, 
Dr. Scott’s rich voice rang out as a clarion call in 
rebuke of sin and in confession of God. 








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THE First DECADE 93 


When the Civil War came and rent the nation into 
two conflicting camps, bringing dissension into the 
most intimate relations of human life, Dr. Scott, as 
a native of the south, sympathized with the southern 
side in the struggle. And thus he found himself 
opposed by some of the very men with whom he had 
wrought in previous years. The Civil War is long 
past now, and north and south have fought upon 
the same side since then. Americans can now for- 
get, and they ought to forget, the enmities of those 
old days. North and south together can now listen 
while a patriot speaks. The words which I am 
about to quote are Dr. Scott’s, written on the margin 
of one of his books, when his thought had been 
kindled by the thought of the author whom he was 
reading: 


First let me live for my God; next, for my country; then, 
for my family; and, last of all, for my weak, unworthy self.’ 


With the period of his brief British ministry and 
his subsequent New York ministry we are not here 
concerned. Sufhce to say that Dr. Scott never got 
away from his affection for California and that he 
returned to San Francisco in 1870 to found St. John’s 
Church, of which he continued to be pastor until his 
death in 1885. 

We must content ourselves with merely chronicling 
some of his noteworthy successes achieved in other 
fields, which were of astonishing variety. For three 
years in New Orleans, he was editor of The Pres- 
byterian, and, in San Francisco, he founded and 
for four years edited The Pacific Expositor. Ue 
was the author of eleven published books, which had 
a wide circulation throughout the country. He took 


94 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


a leading part in the founding of both the City 
College and the University Mound College, which 
gave at least a flavor of higher learning to the rather 
unruly life of the first generation of San Francisco. 
In days when travel really meant strenuous labor he 
visited the countries of Europe on one tour, and upon 
another the lands of Egypt, Arabia and Palestine. 
He was the friend of Agassiz, and made suggestions 
for the advancement of scientific knowledge. He 
was a great ecclesiastical leader, and when the Gen- 
eral Assembly met in his former home in New 
Orleans, in 1858, he was elected Moderator. 

This mere recital of facts would be incomplete 
without some further characterization of the 
personality of the man. I believe that the secret of 
his life was laid bare in that one swift note upon the 
margin of his book, to which I have already referred. 
In personal appearance he was tall of stature and 
dignified in his bearing. With his dignity there was 
blended gentleness and geniality. We are told that 
he was a very approachable man. He used to call 
his students his “boys,’’ and this too in days when 
most professors were afraid of such unbending. 
When he preached his eyes glowed and his face 
shone with his joy in the truth of Jesus. 

Dr. James Woods tells us how, when standing 
on the corner of Bush and Montgomery Streets one 
day, he said to one of the prominent members of Dr. 
Scott’s church: “God is jealous of His glory and 
will allow no idols. Beware lest your church make 
an idol of its pastor, and in some way the Lord take 
him from you.” He tells us that he sometimes trem- 
bled for him when he saw so much of what seemed 
the spirit of idolatry among his people. Upon an- 


THE First DECADE 95 


other occasion he said to an old lady of the Calvary 
congregation: “But you must not worship your pas- 
tor.”’ Her quick reply was: “I don’t. I only worship 
the God that is in him.” 

Physically Dr. Scott was a powerful man, but he 
was lame, and the story of his lameness is this. 
When he was a country lad in Tennessee books were 
few and the boy was eager to possess books but with- 
out money to buy them. He learned that a neighbor 
was owner of a Greek Testament which he could not 
read and which the young lad could not buy. So he 
bargained with him to give him three days’ plowing 
in his fields as the price of the book. It was while 
plowing amid the stumps and rocks and dampness 
that he contracted the cold which resulted in per- 
manent lameness. Such was the temper of the man 
who preached in Bush Street during the formative 
days of the first decade. 

From this time onwards the founding of new 
churches proceeds with such rapidity that it will be 
impossible for us to enter into the details as closely 
as we have done hitherto. We shall have to content 
ourselves with briefly chronicling the foundation of 
most of the new churches in the northern part of the 
State. 

The First Presbyterian Church of Napa was 
organized on January 19, 1855, with eleven mem- 
bers, the Reverend J. C. Herron acting as pastor 
until January 18, 1858. He was followed by the 
Reverend Peter V. Veeder, who remained six years. 
Following his resignation Dr. I. M. Condit supplied 
the church for a year, when the Reverend Richard 
Wyllie, D.D., began his labors, being at first en- 
gaged as stated supply for six months, and remain- 


96 ‘Tuer PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ing as pastor for fifty-five years, the longest pastorate 
in the history of the Pacific Coast. It has been a 
story of quiet, steady growth, including the building 
of a church edifice in 1875 and the installation of an 
organ. [he Reverend Otto Ironmonger became 
pastor in 1922, and under his fine leadership the 
church is going steadily forward. 

It is interesting to note that the first endeavor to 
found a church in the capital of the state ended in 
failure. In 1856 the Reverend William E. Baker 
organized the First Presbyterian Church in an up- 
stairs room on the northwest corner of J and Sixth 
Streets. It had thirty-eight members, three of whom 
united by confession of faith, and this year this 
church was represented in the Synod of the Pacific. 
Mr. Baker was unanimously chosen as pastor with 
a salary of two thousand dollars a year, but in May, 
1857, he resigned and shortly afterwards sailed for 
New York. ‘There was casual supply given to the 
church for about one year. Efforts to obtain a pas- 
tor of the church ended in disappointment to the 
congregation. About January 1, 1858, the Board 
of Missions had to inform the church that no suit- 
able minister could be procured to fill the place. 
Three ministers were called who declined the call. 
Occasional help was rendered by some of the most 
eminent of the ministers of the church but the con- 
eregation became disintegrated and at the outbreak 
of the Civil War there was a sharp cleavage which 
finally disrupted the church. In 1861-2 the city was 
swept by destructive floods. ‘The ultimate outcome 
of the combination of troubles was that the name 
of the church disappeared from the roll of the 
Presbytery. A sheet pasted in the Sessional Record 


‘THE First DECADE 97 


of the church contains the last written documentary 
statement bearing upon its early history. 


Sacramento, April 27, 1864. 
G. I. R. Morrell, Esq., 


Clerk of Session of First Presbyterian Church of Sacramento: 


Since the last meeting of the Session I have given letters 
of dismission to the following persons in good standing in 
the church to unite with other churches. Please enter a 
proper record in the Session Book and on the roll of mem- 
bers. 


This communication was not signed. Some twenty- 
nine members were thus dismissed. When the West- 
minster Church was organized in 1866 by the Rev- 
erend James McDonald, D.D., some of these mem- 
bers were regained. 

The early history of the First Presbyterian 
Church of Santa Rosa was almost, but not quite, 
parallel to that of the First Church of Sacramento. 
It began when Santa Rosa was a hamlet of twenty- 
five houses and had a population of possibly one 
hundred and fifty. But the country district round 
about was already settled. Indeed Sonoma County, 
having some of the finest land of the state, was early 
sought by farmers from the western frontiers. It 
was known upon the coast as the “State of Missouri.” 
The church here too had rather a precarious early 
history. The Reverend James Woods gave it supply 
from December, 1855, until December, 1856. Then 
came a period of irregular and discontinued service. 
The next stage of the history of Presbyterianism in 
Sonoma County begins with the arrival of the Rev- 
erend Thomas Fraser in December, 1859. Here, 
for the first time, we reach one of the names most 


98 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


conspicuous in the story of Presbyterianism upon the 
Pacific Coast. As we proceed further in the next 
decade we will learn that the church had no greater 
pioneer founder than Dr. Fraser. The Santa Rosa 
church for some time was conjoined with Two Rock 
and one or two other outside points to form one 
pastoral charge. 

Other churches founded prior to 1860 were the 
Church of Suisun in Sonoma County, which for some 
years formed one pastoral charge with Vacaville but 
ultimately disappeared, leaving Vacaville alone. In 
1858 the church of Healdsburg was organized by 
the Reverend James Woods. Indeed for some time 
there were two Presbyterian churches in Healds- 
burg, one belonging to the Old School and the other 
to the New School. 

Among the early mining towns near Sonora was 
Chinese Camp in Tuolumne County, which was a 
scene of busy merchandise, and here a church was 
organized by the Reverend Robert McColloch. In 
1858 the place was swept by fire and with the re- 
cession of mining the church disappeared from the 
roll of the Stockton Presbytery. There were other 
churches projected and extinguished in the same 
way. 

Meanwhile the church was reaching out to a wider 
range of service. ‘Three hundred miles north of the 
Golden Gate, not far south of the Oregon boundary 
line, is Crescent City, a thriving center of the lumber 
industry. The San Francisco Presbytery, on April 
18, 1855, took steps to supply this place with the 
gospel. ‘The church was organized during that year 
by the Reverend Edward S. Lacy, who had been the 
pulpit supply of the Howard Presbyterian Church 


THE First DECADE 99 


during the six months’ absence of Dr. Willey. Mr. 
Lacy did not remain long in the place, being shortly 
afterwards called to be the pastor of the First Con- 
gregational Church of San Francisco, where he re- 
mained for almost a decade. There is no record 
of the enrollment of the Crescent City church, and 
for the first three years it had a precarious existence. 
For a time the church building was occupied by the 
Methodists; afterward the Roman Catholic Church 
permanently gained possession of it. Later the 
Presbyterian Church reorganized in a new building. 

Early in the history of American settlement upon 
the coast Mendocino became an important port 
for the shipping of lumber. Here was a mill that 
cut millions of feet of redwood timber; and the pro- 
prietors, Messrs. Ford and Williams, were earnest 
Christian men, who practically out of their own re- 
sources established the Mendocino Church. It was 
organized in 1859, the most northerly point thus far 
in the Benicia Presbytery, a Presbytery which even 
today has an extent of three hundred miles north and 
south. The church building in Mendocino was one 
of the finest of the first decade of construction. 
Later, owing to the decline of business in the town, 
the church became less prosperous. 

In the following year still farther to the north 
was established the Arcata Church on a beautiful site 
overlooking Humboldt Bay. The Reverend Alex- 
ander Scott, a graduate of Princeton Seminary, was 
commissioned by the Board of Missions in 1860 to 
labor in California. After spending a month in 
Sacramento and feeling the almost complete hope- 
lessness of the situation there, he went on to Union 
Town, as Arcata was first called, and here organized 


100 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


a church. He was followed by the Reverend James 
S. MacDonald in 1862, who speaks of the beautiful 
house of worship close to the border of the redwood 
forest, with its wonderful outlook. This church in 
a new building, still remains, strong and effective, 
to this day. 

Settlement was reaching out in all directions up 
the Sacramento Valley. ‘The Reverend W. W. Brier 
organized the Red Bluff Church in 1860 at the head 
of navigation of the Sacramento River. Southwards, 
in what was then the lower part of the Presbytery 
of San Jose, the Reverend James Woods organized 
the Watsonville Church in 1860, which was reorgan- 
ized later by the Reverend W. W. Brier and placed 
upon a permanent basis. And far away in the south- 
land, at the pueblo of Los Angeles, there had been 
made efforts for the organization of a Presbyterian 
Church. But inasmuch as we are to deal with the 
early history of the church in Los Angeles in Chap- 
ter VIII, we will her eomit any further references to 
the obscure beginnings in the southern metropolis. 

These then were the churches founded in the 
decade that closes in 1860. ‘The earliest of these 
churches were located in the earliest centers of popu- 
lation, in San Francisco, Benicia, Marysville, Stock- 
ton and Sacramento. These were generally of per- 
manent growth and achievement. Where they dis- 
appeared they were succeeded by other churches 
either Presbyterian or of some other evangelical 
denomination. ‘The organizations effected in the 
mining towns were more precarious, and most of 
these vanished in another decade. But already agri- 
culture is giving promise of a wholly new develop- 
ment, such as the first arrivals could scarcely have 


THE First DECADE IOI 


foreseen, and there are new rural settlements, first 
in the country around the bay of San Francisco, such 
as the San Ramon valley and the land stretching 
southward on both sides of the bay towards San Jose. 
There are farming districts, south as far as Watson- 
ville and north as far as Red Bluff, also on the north- 
ern coast around Humboldt Bay, where lumbering, 
too, is now becoming an immense factor in develop- 
ment. But practically all of this settlement depends 
upon water transport. ‘The following decade, with 
its vast. railway extension, is the decade of the ex- 
pansion of the church into the wide valleys. 

It may be well here to give a summary of the 
Presbyterial statistics of the decade. In doing so 
we omit the statistics of the Presbytery of Oregon, 
which was so far removed from California as to be 
practically a distinct field. The Old School statistics 
are as follows: 


1855 
Presbytery of California, 3 ministers, 5 churches, 233 members 
Presbytery of Stockton, 3 ministers, 2churches, 65 members 
Total 6 ministers, 7 churches, 298 members 

1860 
Presbytery of California, 9 ministers, 2churches, 625 members 
Presbytery of Stockton, 3 ministers, 3churches, 63 members 
Presbytery of Benicia, 7 ministers, 5 churches, 214 members 
Total 19 ministers, ro churches, 902 members 


——— 


The New School statistics are as follows: 


1855 
Presbytery of San Francisco, 13 ministers, rochurches, 302 members 
1860 
Presbytery of San Francisco, 7 ministers, 4 churches, 123 members 
Presbytery of Sierra Nevada, 3 ministers, 4 churches, 154 members 
Presbytery of San Jose, 6 ministers, 3 churches, 104 members 


Total 16 ministers, rz churches, 381 members 


102. TH: PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Dr. Scott, the outstanding preacher of the church, 
belonged to the Old School, and at the height of his 
popularity drew such crowds that it was difficult to 
accommodate them, but the New School men were 
very able and much more aggressive in the Home 
Mission work than were the men of the Old School. 
The First Church of Oakland, San Jose, Red Bluff, 
Mendocino, Alameda, nearly all the churches in the 
mining camps, and most of the early churches in 
Nevada, were organized by “New School” men. 
Dr. Kendall, the General Secretary of the New 
School Board of Home Missions was a man of 
statesmanlike vision, capable of inspiring the Home 
Missionaries to the remotest field of the church. 

We should note also that from the very beginning 
the strong churches of San Francisco were accus- 
tomed to help the weaker churches outside. For in- 
stance when the First Church of Sacramento became 
disintegrated and was about to dissolve, the Rev- 
erend Dr. Anderson, pastor of First Church of San 
Francisco, came to its aid and at a meeting of the 
congregation held about May, 1858, offered on be- 
half of his church, and Calvary Church, to raise the 
sum of $1200 for that year, provided the church 
would continue its organization and pay its debts. 
The records do not disclose the sequel. In this same 
connection there lies before me an interesting letter 
written to the Reverend Thomas Fraser, D.D., by 
Mr. James B. Roberts, a well known elder of Cal- 
vary Church, with which he encloses checks to the 
amount of $150.00 in part payment of the pledge 
of the Ladies’ Missionary Society of Calvary Church, 
towards the cost of constructing the church in Santa 
Rosa. More is to follow. But he naively remarks 


THE First DECADE 103 


that the ladies collect money slowly. The date of 
this letter is indeed December 5, 1862—somewhat 
later than the period under discussion, but it indicates 
a settled policy. } 

On the whole the new population was American, 
especially in the rural communities, fundamentally 
devoted to the American ideals of justice, honesty, 
freedom to pursue one’s lawful occupation, and civil 
and religious liberty. Despite the riot and violence 
which in the days of the gold rush were everywhere 
open (and practically every man carried a gun), the 
underlying sense of public decency soon asserted it- 
self, and substituted a truly American administration 
for both the mediaevalism of the Mexican institu- 
tions and the shoddiness and political jobbery which 
disgraced the beginnings of municipal government 
in San Francisco. In every community where the 
American population is relatively strong the ulti- 
mate triumph of American ideals is certain. Even 
today it is probable that California is more American 
in blood than is New York or Massachusetts. Thus 
our churches, from the beginning to date, have been 
generally composed of native American settlers, in 
which other men of English speaking nationality find 
themselves readily at home. 

But our church in California has also always had 
a considerable number of people of foreign blood, 
near to ourselves, or more remote, for whom we 
have had to provide gospel ordinances. Thus we 
have seen the foundation of the Welsh church. 
There were also Spanish and German churches. And 
when we come to the history of Oriental missions in 
this state we will learn how definitely the burden of 
the Chinese lay upon the Christian conscience. 


104 “THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


In various directions the Presbyterian church 
reached out beyond the borders of its own organiza- 
tion to bless the community. For instance the 
Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society of San Fran- 
cisco had its origin with one of the splendid women 
of Howard Church. She was the wife of Major 
Amos B. Eaton, Commissary of the U. S. Army, one 
of those rare and radiant women of refinement and 
position who freely consecrate all their gifts to the 
glory of God and the blessing of humanity. 

She was sitting at her window one day, looking 
into the street, when a young girl, a complete 
stranger, rushed to her door and asked for her pro- 
tection. She had arrived alone in the city, had been 
enticed into a house which she soon discovered to 
be disreputable, had escaped into the street, and 
hurrying along in her desperation had chanced to 
catch a glimpse of the kind, motherly face of Mrs. 
Eaton, and had appealed to her for aid. She did 
not appeal in vain. Mrs. Eaton soon found that she 
was worthy of her shelter. And from this incident, 
which might so easily have terminated in a tragedy, 
Mrs. Eaton learned the necessity of providing a 
permanent refuge for the tempted and defenceless 
girls of the city. She called a meeting of Christian 
women of all denominations to be held in the First 
Baptist Church, and started on its career the “Ladies 
Protection and Relief Society,” which was the parent 
society of all the similar unselfish, holy organizations 
of women whose work has illuminated the pages of 
the history of San Francisco. 

The Protestant Orphan Society of San Francisco 
originated with one of the good women of First 
Church. Dr. Williams tells us that in January, 


THE First DECADE 105 


1851, a Mrs. Nathaniel Lane, a prominent member 
of his church, called at his home and spoke of the 
importance of making some provision for the care 
of orphans such as she had known in her former 
home in New Orleans. On January 31, 1851, a 
meeting was held in First Church, for the purpose 
of forming an orphan society. Mrs. Williams was 
elected the first President and Mrs. S. H. Willey, the 
first Vice-President. ‘The original society still re- 
mains with all its beneficent ministry and it has been 
the inspiration of many similar societies, Protestant, 
Catholic and Jewish. 

There has been some contradiction in accounts 
given of the origin of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association in San Francisco. But the present his- 
torian accepts that of the Reverend Albert Will- 
iams,* who was an eyewitness of the events he re- 
cords, and also is generally a most reliable witness. 


It was my privilege to become one of the founders of 
the Young Men’s Christian Association of San Francisco. 
This cause has retained an abiding interest in my mind. In 
view of the need of such an instrumentality, especially in 
San Francisco, I was prompt to give to the proposal of 
organization special attention. ‘The meeting with this ob- 
ject in view, was held in the First Presbyterian Church, and 
the draft of a Constitution was made by myself. At that 
meeting, July 18, 1853, the Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion was formally instituted. 


The first president of the Association was a young 
man named Osborn, a lawyer and a member of First 
Church, whose example gave refreshment and moral 
strength to the young men of the city, but who died 
before he had reached his prime. 


1 Pioneer Pastorate, p. 158. 


106 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Such were the beginnings of one of the greatest 
and most beneficial institutions of our city and state. 

The early work of the Presbyterian Church in 
the way of education is so important that I must 
reserve that for a separate chapter. 

We cannot close this chapter without some refer- 
ence to the attitude of the church and the ministry 
to the moral conditions which existed in the city 
from 1849 to 1856 and culminated in the organiza- 
tion of the Vigilance Committee. Conditions of 
public safety were continually growing worse dur- 
ing these years. ‘Thieves, incendiaries and murder- 
ers were numerous, cruel, aggressive and defiant. 
Fires were kindled to destroy and to give the perpe- 
trators an opportunity for plunder. ‘The laws were 
not executed because the officers of the law were 
themselves inefficient and corrupt. The better 
people seemed for a time to be totally unable to cope 
with the situation. They held conventions and en- 
deavored to make good nominations to place before 
the electorate. But when the elections were held 
the candidates returned always had the same notort- 
ous character. In the subsequent investigation it was 
discovered that ballot boxes were made with false 
sides and bottoms in which were packed any desired 
number of ballots beforehand. ‘Thus it made no 
difference how many votes were cast on the election 
day. Voting became useless. This device was not 
known at the time or drastic measures would have 
been taken earlier. It was the subsequent investiga- 
tion that brought into light the full enormity of the 
corruption of the political bosses of San Francisco 
down to the year 1856. Meanwhile, on October 8, 
1855, the San Francisco Evening Bulletin began pub- 


THE First DECADE 107 


lication, edited by Mr. James King. He produced a 
remarkable paper, one which discussed the political 
situation without fear or favor. He even gave the 
names of the men who were responsible for fraudu- 
lent elections and moral corruption. One of these, 
a man named Casey, had been a convict in Sing Sing 
Prison in New York. Mr. King stated this fact in 
his paper. On the same afternoon Casey found Mr. 
King on the street of the city and shot him in cold 
blood. Casey immediately gave himself up to his 
friends at the police station where he thought that 
he would be safely taken care of. It is certain that 
he did not expect that any punishment would follow. 
Indeed it is said that in those days the prisoners 
arriving at the jail were welcomed with a glad hand- 
shake by their friend the sheriff and by his associates 
the jailors. The shooting of King brought to a 
crisis the moral indignation which had been steadily 
growing. The tolling of the fire bell brought to- 
gether a crowd so great that the confederates of the 
assassin were filled with terror. Casey had to be 
kept in jail for his own safety. The volunteers were 
organized into regular military companies, each with 
its officers, and all under the direction of a central 
executive committee of thirty-three members. They 
declared their one purpose to be “to perform every 
just and lawful act for the maintenance of law and 
order, and to sustain the laws when faithfully min- 
istered, but we are determined that no thief, burglar, 
assassin, ballot stuffer, or other disturber of the peace 
shall escape punishment either by quibbles of the 
law, the carelessness or the corruption of the police, 
or the laxity of those who pretend to administer 
justice.’ At this juncture Dr. Scott, the pastor of 


108 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Calvary Church, declared against the Vigilance Com- 
mittee, asserting that they themselves were criminal 
lawbreakers and that the punishment of criminals 
should be left to the officers who were sworn to 
execute the laws. No one doubted the complete sin- 
cerity of Dr. Scott, but upon this occasion he en- 
tirely failed to carry public sentiment with him. 
Extra-judicial measures were evidently necessary. 
The Reverend J. W. Brayton made an able reply to 
Dr. Scott, which was published in The Pacific on De- 
cember 18, 1856. Ele pointed out that: = Men 
guilty of crimes could not be punished. From 
homicidal lists carefully kept it is known that at least 
twelve hundred murders have been committed in 
San Francisco and not more than three or four have 
been executed by law. The ballot box and the execu- 
tive power of the city were in the hands of criminal 
classes and unprincipled demagogues, who could thus 
perpetuate their own rule. The worst official swin- 
dles that have ever been perpetrated ruined and mad- 
dened our business men. Life had no security where 
there was no punishment. The body of some unfor- 
tunate man was found floating in the bay almost 
everyimorning, v.38! Phere was not a ‘manvinethe 
city who did not know that left to the law there was 
no chance that Casey should be punished. When 
the news of Mr. King’s murder startled the city, I 
also joined the crowd that from all quarters has- 
tened to the fatal spot. Gaining access to him I sat 
long at his side as he lay in agony and blood, breath- 
ing yet no vengeance against his murderers.” Sufhce 
to say that in this time of testing practically the 
whole moral strength of the church was behind the 
work of the Vigilance Committee. 


THE First DECADE 109 


In closing this account of the general activities of 
the church during this decade, let us note that on 
DSeptembery1y) 1851, Phe Pacific! sissuedi its first 
number, a joint production of the Congregational 
and New School Presbyterian churches. ‘The Pacific 
Expositor began publication in 1860. 


CHAPTER VII 
THE SECOND DECADE IN THE NORTH 


CCORDING to the United States Census of 
1850 the population of California was 92,598; 
according to that of 1860 it had reached 379,994 
and at the end of the decade now under considera- 
tion it had risen to 560,247. During the first decade 
the chief industry of the state was mining, which 
attained the peak of production in 1855 when it 
yielded the immense sum of $67,613,487. Some- 
times the miner struck it rich and acquired sudden 
wealth; more often he derived a steady daily gain 
from the washings of his pans, which in the accumu- 
lations of the months of labor amounted to a tidy 
sum; occasionally he had his earnings stolen from 
him. His was a hard, rough life, unwashed and un- 
shaven, with the mud for a floor, a wooden box for 
a bed and a saddle-bag for a pillow. His diversion 
was commonly a drunken orgy. 

Mining has never ceased to be an important item 
in the industry of California, and in the second 
decade of our history it was still in vigorous opera- 
tion. But from the very beginning of the existence 
of California as a state there had been a protest 
from the agricultural interests against the domina- 
tion of the legislature by the miners. Los Angeles, 


1 Estimate of the California State Mining Bureau in 1912, quoted 
by Cleland, His. of Cal., Am. Pd., p. 268. 


IIo 


THE SECOND DECADE IN THE NortH III 


which was chiefly a cattle county, was especially ag- 
grieved; and out of this conflict of interest there 
arose frequent proposals for the division of the state 
and the establishment of territorial government in 
the southern part. 

But a shifting of the center of political power oc- 
curred in the second decade. Agriculture was rapidly 
achieving a new importance. Already shrewd specu- 
lators were perceiving that wealth derived from the 
ownership of land might ultimately exceed wealth 
produced by mines. In 1860 there were shipped 
from San Pedro a million pounds of grapes packed 
in sawdust. And William Wolfskill had already 
planted his first seedling orange trees. Although the 
southern part of the state never was rich in the 
golden metal, and thus did not come into prominence 
or gain population so early as did the northern part, 
it did become rich in golden fruit. And a disastrous 
drought in 1863-4 proved to be a blessing in dis- 
guise in that it forced the southern ranchers to divide 
the cattle ranges into smaller holdings suitable for 
the raising of fruit and to study the possibilities of 
artificial irrigation of the land. 

All of which means that for the period of the 
life of our church which we are now studying, the 
agricultural settlement is displacing in importance 
the mine, and affording a far more permanent basis 
for religious work than we have had thus far; and, 
moreover, there is a new south emerging, a south 
of orange groves and cities, which in its subsequent 
ecclesiastical development will far outstrip the north. 
But inasmuch as the next chapter will deal with the 
early history of our church in the southern section 
of the state we will here omit further reference to 


112 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the important churches which were there founded 
during this decade. 

The other characteristic of this period as it re- 
lates to the growth of the church is the building of 
railways. It soon became evident to the early 
leaders of the state that its commercial and indus- 
trial development would be narrowly restricted, 
especially its development in agriculture, unless it 
could have a closer communication with the eastern 
states and a readier access to their markets. ‘The 
establishment of the Overland Mail and the Pony 
Express were intended to bring the east and west 
into closer postal relations; but this did not greatly 
aid the marketing of the rancher’s produce. It was 
railroads that were needed, and it was by the vision 
and energy of the Big Four, Messrs. Stanford, Hop- 
kins, Crocker and Huntington, that the Central 
Pacific Railroad was driven through and pushed over 
the mountains between the years 1861 and 1869, 
until it met the Union Pacific near Ogden. And now 
the way was open for the unrestricted westward 
movement of the vast new population which would 
fill the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, and in 
the course of time send all their varied produce of 
cattle-range, grain field, vineyard and orchard into 
the markets of the east. The extensions of the 
railway into the southern part of the state still lay 
in the following decade, and the Oregon-California 
Railroad was not completed until 1887. But from 
this time onward the progress of settlement and the 
location of churches mainly followed the line of the 
railroad. 

Other movements affecting the life of the church 
besides those which were local in California were the 


THe SECOND DECADE IN THE NortTH 113 


national agitation between the north and the south 
which culminated in the Civil War. ‘This did not 
indeed affect California so directly or so deeply as 
it did the states in the east, because it was remote 
from the scene of the conflict, and at the outset of 
the struggle it seemed impossible to send any con- 
siderable body of troops to join either army. Later 
there were some fifteen thousand young men of Cali- 
fornia who stood in the ranks of the Union Army. 
On the whole the sympathy of California was de- 
cidedly with Lincoln and his cause, but there were a 
good many influential people who espoused the side 
Ore thes, Contederacy. |; Dhecleavage j/entered ‘the 
churches and divided the communion table. The 
national body of the Presbyterian Church was cleft 
in two, the south against the north. 

At the same time, working beneath the outward 
divisions, there were new forces making for unity. 
And the two schools of Presbyterianism in the north, 
the old and the new, returned in 1870 into the one 
fold. Indeed the national disruption was one of the 
most compelling causes of the reconciliation of the 
two schools of northern Presbyterianism for they 
both discovered that in the presence of a danger 
which threatened the freedom of the human spirit, 
their former difficulties became of minor import. 

California happily, being removed from the scene 
of actual conflict, and substantially standing with the 
northern side, escaped the national division. On the 
other hand she shared in the new spiritual union, 
when the two divergent schools of interpretation of 
the Confession of Faith, agreed to live together and 
trust one another, and she entered joyously into the 
reunion of 1870. 


114 [He PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Such are the general characteristics of the period 
that lies before us. It remains for us now to deal 
with the details of the picture, to behold the rise of 
new churches and to trace the progress of churches 
already established, keeping in view some of the 
potent personalities who move in these new scenes. 

We begin with the Brooklyn Church, which is 
now a downtown church in the city of Oakland, 
faced with all the perplexing problems of a district 
from which the older families are removing to the 
desirable new residential suburbs. But in the early 
sixties it was a village of a few hundred inhabitants, 
known by the Mexicans as San Antonio Embar- 
cadero, and having the additional American name 
of Clinton, cut off from Oakland by the marshy 
estuary, which is now Lake Merritt, and having a 
reputation for whiskey drinking and insecurity of 
life and property. Not far from the place where 
the church afterwards stood was the bull pen, where 
there was a large amphitheater in which on Sunday 
mornings the populace would gather to see bulls and 
bears fight. No one believed that a church could 
live in this place. It was a very unpromising field. 

But here the Reverend W. W. Brier, the vigorous 
Synodical missionary of the New School, determined 
to start a church, holding the first meeting of 
which we have record on April 16, 1859, when he 
gathered a group of five men “to be known as the 
Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Brooklyn, and to receive and hold in trust all prop- 
erty which may be acquired by the said Board.” Mr. 
Brier being a minister of the San Jose Presbytery, 
this church became connected with that body. There 
was in the community a Mr. A. G. Webster, who 


THE Seconp DrcaDE IN THE NortTH 115 


was a godly man, and who was the first person to 
try to hold religious services there. He fitted up 
the old school house after a primitive fashion and 
sent out invitations to different ministers to come 
and preach. 

Just then there appeared the Reverend George 
Pierson, a returned missionary from the Micronesian 
Islands, who was detained in San Francisco harbor 
by the illness of his wife, and who undertook the 
pastoral care of this needy field. He organized the 
church on February 16, 1861, and dedicated the 
first building on the first Sabbath of the following 
May. He was a man of rare devotion and power, 
and from the very outset of this ministry worked 
without the aid of missionary money. Even the men 
who ridiculed the project of the church respected 
him. ‘The proprietor of a circus one day came to 
him and offered to give him a show for the benefit 
of his church. The offer was graciously declined. 

Mrs. A. H. Hamilton, one of the few original 
members of the church, has supplied some sig- 
nificant reminiscences of those days. Among these 
she tells us: ““The morning on which we went across 
from Clintonside to the dedication of the church, a 
lady walking with us, looking at the beautiful sight 
of the new church, and the people gathering, said: 
‘This is a very different sight from what I saw as | 
looked across there a Sunday morning a year or 
eighteen months ago, and saw two human bodies 
hanging from the limbs of one of those oak trees, 
on the other side of the street in front of the 
church.’ ”’ 

From the outset this church has been blessed with 
the spirit of evangelism and missionary zeal. It has 


116 THr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


had a succession of strong ministers, among whom 
were the Rev. Robert Paterson, D.D., under whose 
ministry from 1875 to 1885 the church made a great 
increase of membership, the Reverend E. S. Chap- 
man, D.D., in whose pastorate, in 1887, the present 
building was erected, and the Reverend Samuel S. 
Palmer, D.D., afterwards moderator of the Gen- 
eral Assembly. 

The neighborhood soon outlived its early qualities 
of roughness, and became one of the most desirable 
residential districts of the expanding Oakland. Who 
can say how far the presence of Brooklyn Church 
in the community was the cause of the change? But 
in the cities of California no population is perma- 
nent; and Brooklyn church is engaged in a new strug- 
gle for existence of a kind which the last generation 
could not have foreseen. 

Just about the same time the Synod of Alta Cali- 
fornia, under the administration of Dr. Brier as 
Synodical Missionary was pressing over the lines 
into Nevada and beginning work there, establishing 
the church at Carson City in 1861, and that of Vir- 
ginia City in 1862. We reserve these churches for 
later consideration when we study the history of the 
Presbytery of Nevada. 

From this time onwards in San Francisco there 
are made repeated efforts to establish new churches. 
The majority of these have succeeded splendidly; 
but some have been abortive. We have already 
seen one such attempt in the story of the Geary Street 
Church and now we meet with another. St. Paul’s 
Church was organized in 1861 as a south of Market 
Street church of the Old School, and received under 
the care of Presbytery, and in 1865 it was dissolved 


THE SECOND DECADE IN THE NorTH 117 


by Presbytery and its members were added to the 
roll of First Church. 

The Vallejo Church was founded on November 
22, 1862, but earlier than this date the town had 
received occasional service from Dr. Woodbridge of 
Benicia. Under the ministry of able men it has had 
a steady, continuous growth throughout its history. 
Three of its pastors have remained long enough to 
allow their full powers of service to tell in the life 
of the church and community. The Reverend 
Nathaniel B. Klink was stated supply from 1862 to 
1883. The Reverend Theodore F. Burnham was 
stated supply and pastor from 1892 to his death in 
1910, and the Reverend Darius A. Mobley, D.D., 
has been pastor from that date to the present. A 
distinctive feature of the work of the church is its 
close connection with Mare Island Naval Station, 
where hundreds of workmen are employed and 
thousands of our American blue jackets are coming 
and going every year. 

In 1863 the Vacaville Church was organized by 
the Presbytery of Benicia. Some years previously 
it had been worked by the Reverend James Woods 
in connection with Suisun. The latter church dis- 
appeared from the records from this time onwards 
and Vacaville remained alone. It is now a thriving 
church, in a beautiful fruit district, and under the 
care of Sacramento Presbytery. 

Early in the sixties the city of San Francisco 
passed over, and around, Nob Hill, and began to 
build up a new district in the valley through which 
ran Larkin Street, and here amid the sand hills a 
new church of fourteen members was organized on 
November 8, 1864, known as the Larkin Street 


118 [He PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Church. Later with the growth of the city, the 
church was moved still further to the west, and its 
name changed to Franklin Street. Under the one 
name or the other it had a honorable history for 
forty-one years, growing to moderate strength and 
then declining, until the fire of 1906 wiped it out of 
existence. Its pastors were a succession of faithful 
men, some of them bearing well known names, such 
as: The Reverends J. D. Strong, J. H. McMonagle, 
Dr. Fillmore, J. C. Eastman, D.D., J. M. Allis, 
W.tWoe Baris; fic Wills. sip. 

In 1865 the Central Presbyterian Church was orga- 
nized in San Francisco to serve the district centering 
about the junction of Sixth and Market Streets. 
Its last building was on Tyler Street, now Gol- 
den Gate Avenue, between Taylor and Jones Streets, 
and was dedicated on November 28, 1869. But it 
was never free from a crushing debt, which, in its 
later years, accumulated greatly, until it amounted 
to $33,000. The building was sold to the United 
Presbyterians, and in 1893, the name of the congre- 
gation disappeared from the roll. 

Meanwhile, on the eastern side of the bay, two 
new churches came into being, both destined to use- 
fulness, and one to eventual strength. They were 
the Contra Costa church, and that of Alameda. 

In February, 1863, the Board of Home Missions 
commissioned the Reverend H. R. Avery to labor 
in San Ramon Valley. He held services in Pacheco, 
San Ramon and Green Valley, adding Antioch in 
the following year. In 1875 it was decided to con- 
centrate this work in the organization of a central 
church in Danville, and to adopt Danville as the 
name of the field, In the early years of the settle- 


Tue Seconp DecapE IN THE NorTH 119 


ment of this valley the farmers were of American 
stock, but within the present century here, as in many 
other sections of northern California, the land has 
passed into the hands of the Portuguese and Italian 
Swiss colonies. 

The name “Alameda”’ means “lovely,” and lovely 
it was in its ways, and its homes, and its sunlight, for 
the people of San Francisco who sought its retreat 
at the close of the day’s work. ‘The church began 
in 1864 with an afternoon service given by the Rev- 
erend George Pierson of Brooklyn, who labored 
here for six months, and was followed by the Rev- 
erend W. W. Brier, who organized the church on 
November 5, 1865, with twelve members. Its story 
has been one of steady, unintermittent growth. And 
so effectively has it covered the needs of the city of 
Alameda that a second church has never been seri- 
ously undertaken. Its pastors have been the Rever- 
end E. Graham, the Reverend F. L. Nash, who is 
still living and teaching a Bible Class in the church, 
the Reverend Rodney L. Tabor, who carried the 
church through its most painful struggles, and dying 
in 1885, left a fragrant memory, the Reverend E. G. 
Garette, who finished a noble life work here, the 
Reverend Frank S. Brush, D.D., a cultured gentle- 
man and builder of churches, under whose ministry 
the present building was erected, the Reverend 
Herbert Thomson, D.D., a refined scholar and 
preacher, and the Reverend Earle P. Cochrane, 
under whose pastorate the church attained its largest 
membership. 

We have already spoken of the Westminster 
Church of Sacramento, which, after the failure of 
the first attempt at Presbyterian organization, was 


120 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


launched on January 21, 1866, by the Reverend 
James S. MacDonald, with a new hope and a new 
name. But behind the presbytery’s minute of its 
organization there lay a petty, bitter struggle, in 
which the minister of the defunct First Church en- 
deavored to block the way of Dr. MacDonald, who 
was then a young man, and prevent his obtaining 
funds from Mission sources. Sacramento had not 
yet recovered from the floods and the drought of 
1864, which, coupled with the previous injurious 
failure of the church, had precluded the possibility 
of raising funds upon the ground. But young Mac- 
Donald persisted. Mr. J. B. Roberts, elder of Cal- 
vary Church, wrote to him: “You go on and I will 
see that you do not want.”” He sent him each month 
a check for ten dollars, and Calvary Church sent 
him an additional two hundred and fifty dollars dur- 
ing the year. 

The church used the buildings of the State Capitol 
for all its earliest meetings. ‘The first meeting for 
conference was held in the Assembly Room. This 
was almost two years earlier than the date of actual 
organization. The old Senate Chamber was the 
first place of worship, and later the District Court 
Room housed the congregation until the church was 
built. Calvary Church, San Francisco, then under 
the pastorate of Dr. Wadsworth, gave two thousand 
dollars towards the erection of the new building and 
Calvary’s minister preached the dedicatory sermon. 

Standing in the State Capitol close to the center 
of political strife and contention, where sometimes 
the honor of legislators has been bought and sold, 
where always the temptations are strong to postpone 
the people’s good to private advantage, where amid 


ee ng em igh 


THE SECOND DECADE IN THE NorTH 121 


the dust of opposing factions it is hard to see clearly 
the right and to walk bravely in it, this church has 
been ever a source of righteousness, refusing to 
negotiate any weak compromise with evil, and there- 
fore strong, and affording to many a legislator and 
public servant a new access of strength to resist the 
wrong and finely and fearlessly to obey the calls of 
duty. 

The Reverend Sherman L. Divine, D.D., who 
entered upon his pastorate in 1925, has a rich in- 
heritance from the labors of the past, and a holy 
benediction. And to-day he is leading his congrega- 
tion, now grown great and strong, in the new enter- 
prise of erecting a building to cost $350,000. 

Still the east-bay church was lengthening its cords, 
following the movement of population southward 
along the shore, and, in 1866, San Leandro Church 
was founded. 

And the Presbytery of Stockton lengthened its 
lines to the borders of the State of Oregon by send- 
ing the Reverend R. McCulloch to occupy Yreka. 
But no permanent organization was effected and in 
the minutes of the Presbytery of Sacramento, dated 
April 25, 1873, we read that “the churches of Yreka, 
Scott Valley and Austin, Nevada, having ceased to 
exist as organized churches, were stricken from the 
roll.’ The Methodist Episcopal Church per- 
manently and effectively held this place. 

In San Francisco, still further to the west than the 
church had yet gone, on Fell Street, near Gough, the 
Westminster Church was organized in 1866. It was 
in a growing residential district and if it had not 
been for the fact that the Howard Church and Cal- 
vary church both moved into territory tributory to 


122 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


this church, and, at a later period, the First United 
Presbyterian Church also, it would doubtless have 
grown to be one of the city’s great churches. Even 
as it is, surrounded by a neighborhood largely Roman 
Catholic, it has rendered a steadily effective service 
in a location which is today the very center of the 
city. It has had such pastors as the Reverends F. L. 
Nash, John Quincy Adams, D.D., E. H. Avery, 
D.D., Ralph Marshall Davis, D.D., D. A. Mobley, 
D.D., and the present large and genial soul, the 
Reverend Hugh Gilchrist, D.D. Among the well- 
known Presbyterian families which have been con- 
nected with this church are those of elders C. S. 
Capp, Charles Geddes, Charles Adams, Almer M. 
Newhall, F. M. Greenwood, and John Maclaren. 
The last named was the maker of Golden Gate Park. 

In 1867 a new southern outpost was established 
in the San Joaquin Valley in the founding of the 
Visalia church with sixteen members. Its early 
records were lost by fire. Like more than one of 
our California churches it has suffered at one period 
of its history by the unfaithful or disgraceful conduct 
of its minister. But this outpost was never aban- 
doned, and today, under the leadership of the 
Reverend Herbert W. Tweedie, it is one of the 
strongest and most agressive churches in the San 
Joaquin Valley. 

In the same year San Francisco Presbytery organ- 
ized the Emmanuel Church, another which did not 
survive, being disbanded in 1878. 

But the Chico Church, founded at this time, has 
had abiding and growing strength. In July, 1868, 
the Reverend James S. McDonald, then of Sacra- 
mento, at the invitation of General and Mrs. John 


a 





THE SECOND DECADE IN THE NoRTH 123 


Bidwell, visited Chico, which visit resulted in the 
organization of Chico Church with sixteen members. 
This church has been self-supporting from the in- 
ception of the work, owing largely to the steadfast 
generosity of General Bidwell, and his noble wife. 
There has been no extraordinary growth at any time 
in the history of the Church, but a solid, steady gain 
in strength year by year. Under its present pastor, 
the Reverend Rollo Clay LaPorte, its future is full 
of promise. 

We cannot leave Chico Church without some more 
extended reference to General Bidwell, whose life 
was interwoven with much of the history of our state 
and country. We have already seen him as the 
pioneer; ” it was he who after the discovery of gold 
at Sutter’s Mill brought out the first free gold to San 
Francisco. He was intimately associated with men 
who gambled, and drank, and indulged in flagrant 
immoralities, at a period when these things were 
almost the usual course of life in California; but his 
own life throughout was clean. He was in turn a 
member of the State Legislature and of Congress; 
but no taint of corruption was ever connected with 
his name. When nominated as the candidate of the 
National Prohibition Party for the presidency of the 
United States, he polled the largest vote in the his- 
tory of that party. His views on the subject of tem- 
perance are illuminating. [Earlier in his life he be- 
lieved that the use of light wines would minister to 
temperance; and, accordingly, he cultivated the 
choicest grapes for this manufacture. Later, from 
some sad experiences, he saw his mistake and at a 


eS, 


124 HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


vast loss to himself destroyed, root and branch, one 
of the finest vineyards in the state. 

Elsewhere we deal with the history of Indian 
Missions to which the Bidwells, husband and wife, 
devoted themselves. No man in his death was ever 
more sincerely mourned than General Bidwell in 
April, 1900, when the Indians whom he had settled 
on his great ranch near Chico stood about his bier 
with tears streaming down their cheeks. Indians do 
not cry. These did. And hundreds of school chil- 
dren strewed flowers along the way by which the 
cortege passed to the cemetery. At his funeral there 
were three hymns sung, the first by a choir from the 
Indian School of our church, the second by a choir 
from the State Normal School, the third by the 
choir of the Presbyterian church. 

And the essentials of the scene were repeated in 
the death of Mrs. Bidwell in 1917. Most of the 
great estate had been dispersed in charities during 
the lifetime of these fine Christians. The residue 
was left by Mrs. Bidwell to the cause of Christian 
Education, and was disposed of under the direction 
of the committee on Christian Education of the 
Synod of California. 

Other churches founded about this time were 
Trinity and Olivet of San Francisco, and the San 
Rafael Church. 

In 1865 San Francisco started on a new growth 
southwest from Market Street in the direction of the 
Mission. ‘The dwellers in this new district congratu- 
lated themselves on their escape from the fogs which, 
especially in the summer, crept into most of the 
crevices of the rest of the city. Some of the mem- 








GENERAL JOHN BIDWELL 





THE Seconp DecabDE IN THE NortTH 125 


bers of Calvary Church, particularly Elder Roberts, 
interested themselves in establishing a church in the 
new locality. In the summer of 1868 religious ser- 
vices were begun at the corner of Folsom and 
Twenty-second Streets, also a Sabbath School. In 
December a church was organized with seventeen 
members, under the pastoral care of the Reverend 
James H. Marr. Dr. Woodbridge succeeded to this 
pastorate in 1870 and remained until 1875, when 
the church divided, a group going out to form the 
Woodbridge Church. But the church thus formed 
did not continue in existence. In succession came 
the Reverends A. K. Strong, D.D., A. S. Fiske, D.D., 
George L. Spinney, D.D., and J. Cumming Smith. 
Under the eloquent preaching of the last named the 
church grew so greatly that a new house of worship 
was needed, and the present building was erected in 
1892. Following Dr. Smith came the Reverend A. 
N. Carson, D.D., who died suddenly within a year 
of the date of his installation. Following him came 
Dr. J. H. Kerr, now of Brooklyn, New York, and 
following him Dr. E. K. Strong, the son of a for- 
mer pastor, who resigned in 1912 to become the 
superintendent of Home Missions in Benicia 
Presbytery. 

From the time of the great fire in 1906 the char- 
acter of the Mission has been changed. ‘Tens of 
thousands of homeless people of the poorer classes 
were driven out of the old south of Market district 
into the Mission. It ceased to be desirable for the 
residence of the well-to-do, and Trinity Church be- 
came depleted of the families which had made it great 
in the days of Dr. J. Cumming Smith. It is still an 


126 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


important, but not a conventional church, and we will 
deal with it later in a chapter upon present day con- 
ditions in San Francisco. | 

Olivet Church, organized on April 12, 1868, has 
done a quiet, persistent work throughout its history. 
It stands on Potrero Heights, overlooking the bay, 
in full view of the Union Iron Works, close to the 
Russian community; and has been a steady witness 
for evangelical truth and piety. 

San Rafael Church was organized in the public 
school building on September 26, 1869, by the Rev- 
erend H. D. Cain, with thirteen members. It was 
then within the Presbytery of California, having no 
rail communication, and depending upon water trans- 
portation to San Francisco. Mr. R. J. Trumbull, 
an elder of the First Church of San Francisco, did 
much of the work in preparing for the organization, 
and later became the clerk of session of the new 
church. The church was served temporarily by the 
Reverends A. Williams and A. W. Loomis, of San 
Francisco. In July, 1870, the Reverend ‘Townsend 
E. Taylor became the first pastor, remaining until 
1873, and being followed successively by the Rev- 
erend J. S. Hawk and the Reverend James S. Mc- 
Donald. In the pastorate of the last named, in 
1876, a church building was dedicated, free of 
debt, the sermon being preached by the Reverend 
John Hemphill, pastor of Calvary Church. After a 
pastorate of nine years Dr. McDonald resigned to 
become Synodical Missionary, and was succeeded by 
the Reverend Arthur Crosby, D.D., of Brooklyn, 
New York. Dr. Crosby remained until 1892, when 
he resigned to found the Mount Tamalpais Military 
Academy. The Rev. W. B. Noble, D.D., was pastor 








RCH, SAN RAFAE 


} 





RIAN CHI 


~ 
4 


FIRST PRESBYTE 


if 


pt 





THE SeconD DECADE IN THE NortTH 12 


from 1893 to 1898, during which time the present 
stone building was erected. The Reverend David 
James followed and remained nearly ten years. The 
Reverend Professor Lynn IT. White, D.D., was pas- 
tor of the church from 1908 to 1920. ‘The present 
pastor is the Reverend Herbert Thomson, D.D., who 
was previously in Alameda. It is a church of wealth 
and refinement and of large potential leadership. 

Such is the roster of churches which came into 
existence in the north during the decade. But it is 
to be feared that this mere list will very inadequately 
convey an impression of the gathering strength and 
power of the Presbyterian Church as a whole. It 
would be well if we could get below the surface facts 
and see something of the living movement in the 
church of this time. We will try to do something 
of this kind in our chapter on reunion. But we can- 
not leave this chapter without a further reference to 
the attitude of the church towards the Civil War. 

The church entered upon 1861 without a tremor 
of surmise of the terrific events which would take 
place before the year had run its course. ‘The news- 
papers spoke of the discontent in the Southern States, 
then they announced the secession of seven of the 
states and the organization of another government. 
Still the truth of the situation did not quite sink into 
the mind of California. Then the gun that fired upon 
Fort Sumter awakened the national consciousness to 
the grave realities of war. 

There were a good many citizens in California 
who had come from the Southern States. Some of 
them undoubtedly would have favored an extension 
of slavery into the state of their adoption, and did 
in fact try to influence the State Legislature in that 


128 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


direction. But this sentiment was not very weighty 
among Californians as a whole, and though Senator 
Gwin, the leader of the Southern Democrats, has 
sometimes been charged with desiring to transport 
slavery into California, there is no evidence to show 
that even he ever seriously regarded this as a practi- 
cal policy. Later Gwin held a commission in the 
Confederate Army, and a cell in a Union prison. 
But with the outbreak of war there was but little 
open disloyalty in this state. ‘The ministers of the 
churches all preached loyalty mightily. It was a 
great moral issue, a question of conscience, a cry 
for human liberty, without which there could be no 
moral life. The ministers prayed for the Northern 
Armies, and Northern victory. All but Dr. Scott. 
He was indeed a Southerner, and his sympathies 
were Southern. He was quite conscientious in feel- 
ing that liberty was endangered by the endeavor of 
the North to impose its will on the South. He be- 
lieved in the rights of the states, which included the 
right of secession, if the federal government did not 
govern to suit them. When the other churches of 
the city flew the flag of the Union, Calvary church 
did not. The officers of Calvary church were dis- 
mayed and expostulated with their pastor, requiring 
of him that he pray for the President of the United 
States. He acquiesced. And then—he prayed for 
the Presidents. At least tradition thus credibly in- 
forms us. Whatever Dr. Scott believed he had the 
courage of his convictions. But a riot in the house 
of God nearly ensued, and while a crowd was shout- 
ing for his blood in front of the church, one of the 
good ladies of the congregation carried him away 
in a closed carriage from a rear door. This was in 


THE SECOND DecADE IN THE NorTH 129 


October, 1861. Dr. Scott never returned as pastor 
to the pulpit of Calvary which he had made the 
greatest force for righteousness on the Pacific Coast. 
And after the long years now we can perhaps take a 
dispassionate view of the whole transaction and 
realize that Dr. Scott spoke not merely as the South- 
erner, but also as the conscientious objector, to whom 
war was an evil thing. 

The sequel belongs to a subsequent period of our 
story. But here we cannot refrain from recalling 
that when Dr. Scott later returned to California and 
had labored for years as the pastor of St. John’s 
Church, and at length had come to die, among those 
who stood closest to him at the end were the office 
bearers of Calvary Church. The wounds of the war 


had been healed. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE BEGINNINGS OF LOS ANGELES AND 
THE SOUTH 


P to the date to which we have carried our his- 
tory there was little in the pueblo of Los 
Angeles to suggest the amazing development of the 
past fifty years or more. And certainly the field con- 
tained little to attract any minister who was looking 
for a reward in this life. The beginnings of 
evangelical service are obscure. It is evident that 
even the occasional ministers who sojourned in the 
place did not always know of the work of their pre- 
decessors upon the same ground. 

It seems probable that the Reverend John W. 
Douglas, who established the Independent Presby- 
terian Church in San Jose in 1849, afterwards 
worked in Los Angeles for several months early in 
1851. And if so, he is the first American minister 
to hold regular service in the place.t Mr. Douglas 
became the first editor of The Pacific. 

In any case a minister signing himself ‘“Baptist’’ 
in The Pacific of June 4, 1852, utters this cry: 


Long have I, in connection with others, waited the settle- 
ment of a missionary and school teacher in Los Angeles, 
but in vain. As yet the calm is continued, no minister is 


1 This is upon the authority of the Rev. William Warren Ferrier, 
D.D., of the Northern Congregational Association of California, 
1926. 

130 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 131 


there to break the Word of Life to Spanish and American 
residents. No place needs the Gospel more than Los Angeles. 
The native population are ignorant and degraded, though 
possessing the wealth of the land. Few can read, and still 
fewer can write, whilst hundreds of children are brought 
up in idleness, ignorance and wickedness. ‘They are super- 
stitious in religion, and attached to the ridiculous obser- 
vances of the Roman Church. ‘The American population, 
as a rule, are not likely to favor the preaching of the Gospel, 
or the establishing of pure morals among the people. 

The city of Los Angeles contains about 1600 people, three- 
fourths of whom are native Californians, speaking the 
Spanish language. Is there no Presbyterian, Methodist, Epis- 
copal or Baptist minister, who feels it his duty to preach 
Christianity to the people of Los Angeles! 


Our next record of the religious conditions of the 
place is preserved in the Recollections ? of the Rev- 
erend James Woods, who, late in the autumn of © 
1854, went to Los Angeles, gathered a congregation 
and preached the gospel for a year. The place of 
worship was the old adobe court house, where, on 
November 18, 1855, he effected the organization of 
a Presbyterian church of twelve members, except that 
no elder was ordained. ‘Two men were elected to 
this ofice, of whom one declined because he could 
not subscribe to the Westminster Confession of 
Faith; and the other desired that his installation be 
deferred. Dr. Woods also secured a lot for a build- 
ing. 

At that time there were probably about five thousand in- 
habitants. Four-fifths of these were Spanish. Of the other 
one thousand, probably one-half were Americans; the other 
half were English, Scotch, Irish, German, Dutch, French, 


Swiss, Italians, Swedes, Norwegians, Russians and Europeans 
generally. Los Angeles at this time, as to population, was 


2Pp. 197 fi. 


132 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


a miniature of California. I do not suppose there is a county 
or nation in the civilized world that has not a representative 
in California. As to the buildings in Los Angeles, more 
than nine-tenths were adobe. Brick and frame structures 
were the exception and very rare. 

He gives a lively and amusing description of the 
life there. ‘The only man in the land who had a car- 
riage was Don Abel Stearns, who had been born in 
Boston and had lived thirty-five years in Los Angeles 
and had acquired a hundred thousand head of cattle 
roaming over five Spanish grants of land. He was 
the proud father of a Spanish family, for whom 
shortly before the arrival of Mr. Woods he had 
bought the afore-mentioned carriage. 

But as for the rest of the inhabitants the proper 
mode of locomotion was:a. carro, “thatis, a) care 
having a platform twelve feet by five, set on a pair 
of wheels, each of which was a drum sawed from a 
log about three feet in diameter. ‘The axle of the 
cart went through a hole in the center of the round 
block which was here about ten inches thick, narrow- 
ing down to five inches at the rim, and generally 
bound with iron. Over the platform, sustained by 
four stakes at the corners, was a covering of 
stretched rawhide. It was drawn by two, or four, 
oxen. And on this ‘‘carro” the aristocratic ladies of 
the don’s family, in silks and satins, went to the 
‘‘fandango,” or ball. But the men of the family rode 
on horses by their sides, and their horsemanship was 
superb. Sunday was the chief day of amusement and 
bull-fighting was the chief entertainment of that day, 
until an American law stopped this. 

Mr. Woods did not remain long in Los Angeles 
after organizing the church, and the organization 
did not long survive his departure. 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 133 


The next attempt was made by the Rev. Thomas 
K. Davis, D.D., who long afterwards was the 
librarian of the College of Wooster and who, when 
the General Assembly met in Los Angeles in 1903, 
returned thither as a Commissioner and was enter- 
tained by the Reverend William S. Young, D.D., 
clerk of Los Angeles Presbytery and of the Synod 
or Galtrorniasy Inia letter dated April 20,7100 7; 
addressed to Dr. Colmery of Los Angeles, he wrote 
as follows: 


I found myself the only Presbyterian minister in the south- 
southern half of the state . . . had a good Sabbath School, 
preached regularly twice every Sabbath to a congregation 
sometimes encouragingly large, and sometimes very small. 
We organized a church of twelve members, with the prin- 
cipal teacher in the public school, an Irishman, Mr. McKee, 
as elder.” An extract from his diary of March 29, 1856, 
reads: “On Saturday preached at two o'clock a discourse 
preparatory to communion. Eight persons were present, 
four men and four women.” March 30, Sunday: “We had 
our first communion. Fourteen persons communed. ‘Three 
others who will unite with us, were providentially prevented 
at the time. The congregation was unusually large for this 
place. 


Dr. Davis remained in Los Angeles about a year, 
and for a time did not even know that Dr. Woods 
had preceded him, so little impression did any of 
our early Protestant pastors make. 

We add one other item, copied from The Pacific 
of October 16, 1856. 


A Committee of the State Agricultural Society, consist- 
ing of Judge Divine and Reverend Eli Corwin of San Jose, 
has just returned from a visit to Los Angeles. They speak 
in the highest terms of the physical beauties and natural 
resources of that region of vineyards, and with warmth of 


134. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the hospitality which they enjoyed; but they think it very 
doubtful whether the place will take a premium for morality. 
It is yet a kind of forty-nine place. The distance from mar- 
ket has prevented the right kind of population from going 
there in sufficient numbers to control the place. “The last 
preacher they had there advised the respectable Americans all 
to leave the place in a body, and give it up to its own. 


It would be easy to condemn these early Presby- 
terian preachers, who professed a doctrine of the 
perseverance of the saints, for not holding fast in 
Los Angeles. It may be that what was needed was 
the perseverance of the angels. At any rate the 
Presbyterian church did not finally succumb. 

In the “Home Missionary” of April, 1857, we 
come again upon the Reverend J. W. Douglas who 


in the prosecution of his exploring mission in the southern 
section of California, has been spending considerable time 
at Los Angeles. ‘This has been in many respects a foreign 
mission, inasmuch as it required him to pass months isolated 
from such society as an American minister would find 
agreeable. 


Most of those early Californian ministers did not 
stop to ask whether their social environment was 
agreeable or otherwise. That kind came later when 
the early hardships were conquered and California 
had gained the reputation of being an earthly para- 
dise. These pioneers endured hardships, and did 
not talk about them. 

The Reverend W. E. Boardman, D.D., of 
Philadelphia, was the next, beginning his labors in 
February, 1859. [he Los Angeles Vineyard re- 
ported that 


Mr. Boardman delivered a sermon on Sunday which was 
listened to with marked satisfaction by his audience. . . . In 


Ree ace: ia < Sale — 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 135 


accordance with the wishes of the people he consented to 
remain with them. 


Under Dr. 8oardman’s preaching the congrega- 
tion grew rapicly and soon steps were taken to erect 
a church building. A Sewing Society was organized, 
of which Mrs. Boardman became president, and in 
the Pacific Expositor of March, 1860, probably from 
Dr. Scott’s pen, we read the following: 


From various notices in papers that have fallen under 
our eye, we should judge that the labors of this man of God 
are abundant and highly appreciated at Los Angeles. He 
is deservedly popular among all classes and with all denomi- 
nations. We hope soon to be able to report that his congre- 
gation is organized and a house of worship is in process of 
construction. 

The day is coming when the “City of the Angels” will 
be populous; it may be more populous of men and women 
and children playing in the streets than it ever has been 
of angels. Los Angeles will doubtless be one of the largest 
cities of Southern California. Now is the time to sow 
the seed. ‘This is the day for laying broad and strong the 
true foundations; for founding schools and churches. 


The same periodical in the issue of June, 1861, 
tells of the laying of the foundation stone of the 
First Presbyterian Church, which was the first . 
Protestant house of worship in Los Angeles. Catho- 
lics and Hebrews joined with Protestants of every 
variety in extending felicitations on this auspicious 
beginning. The ladies of the community chiefly had 
raised the necessary funds. The difficulties of the 
past seemed to be lifting. 

But this effort also was destined to fail. Dr. 
Boardman labored there for three years, but was 
unable to organize a church—he had only a build- 


136 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ing. In March, 1862, he and his family left Los 
Angeles on the steamship St. Louis for the east. 
The ministers engaged in these early efforts be- 
lieved that they had failed. But they had not failed. 
Dr. Boardman had not failed. ‘Their efforts were 
preparing the way for the final victory. Meanwhile 
without a minister, and without a definite ecclesiasti- 
cal organization, the women of the community still 
carried on for a time. There is no record of any 
minister arriving in Los Angeles up to October 1, 
1863, when this telegram was sent to San Francisco: 


The ladies’ festival for the completion of the Presbyterian 
Church came off on September 21, and was generally 
attended. 


But even these good women failed in their effort 
permanently to establish their church. Our next 
light in the obscurity of this period comes from “The 
Pacific” of July 19, 1866: 


The church edifice erected by the Old School Presby- 
terians in Los Angeles, under Reverend Mr. Boardman’s 
labors, has recently been turned over to the Episcopalians. 
We understand that Rev. Mr. Blaisdell will go to Los 


Angeles and remain there until October. 


Again in the issue of April 11, 1867, a correspondent 
gives another picture of the city and refers to the 
church that had been Presbyterian and had now be- 
come Episcopalian. 


Hard and hopeless as Los Angeles has been to all Prot- 
estant effort hitherto, the tide seems just now on the turn- 
ing point, although there will have to be a vast amount of 
hard work done before Presbyterianism can sail in deep 
water. Because so many Protestants actually have been 
obliged to leave this angelic spot or starve, it does not follow 
that there is nothing to show that they ever were here. 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 137 


Just under the hill, not far from the court-house, is a new 
commodious brick church. It was built by the Old School 
Presbyterians, when Rev. Mr. Boardman, author of “The 
Higher Christian Life,’ was here as their missionary. 

It is now an Episcopal Church, and has the name of St. 
Athanasius. 

Our Presbyterian friends are not easy about this transfer 
of their chapel to the “‘regular succession.” ‘They hint about 
a contract which is yet unmet. ‘The rector that preaches in 
this sainted house, I am told, has made a great blunder in 
telling his congregation that it is wrong to do wrong, and 
that sinners ought to repent. ‘This is meddling with private 
matters, and the talk wherever I go is, that the leaders have 
decided upon the policy of starving the rector. Unless the 
bishop comes to the rescue the rector must leave Los Angeles, 
if not a wiser and better man, perhaps too good a man for 
his people. 


Thus from 1862 to 1869 there does not appear 
to have been a Presbyterian minister in Los Angeles. 
Then came another, who believing in the endurance 
of the saints, tried and, after a little time, confessed 
his failure. It was the Reverend William C. Hard- 
ing, of the Old School, who was able to find but few 
Presbyterians in the settlement, and these apparently 
not encouraging. But better days were soon to 
come. 

We will now have to turn to the story of one of the 
most resolute and most effective pioneers of Home 
Missions with whom God has blessed the church 
upon the Pacific Coast. The Reverend Thomas 
Fraser, D.D., was never robust in body, but he was 
strong in faith. Moreover he was one of those rare 
souls who can simply lose themselves in their devo- 
tion to a great cause. Body, mind and soul he be- 
longed to the Kingdom of God and, more particu- 
larly, to the Presbyterian Church. It is possible that 


138 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


at times his zeal for Presbyterianism led him to 
undervalue other forms of doctrine, say Congrega- 
tionalism. For he certainly believea that Presbyteri- 
anism was better than any of the other ways, and 
he could be a doughty champion of his own church. 
But in all the documents bearing upon his life and 
work which have come under the eye of the present 
historian—letters, reports, actions of ecclesiastical 
bodies—there has been no trace of selfish interest or 
personal ambition in the soul of this man. 

With all the facts of his ministry we, in a Califor- 
nian history, are not concerned. We are not con- 
cerned with his early missionary work in Wisconsin 
where he helped to organize the first Presbytery 
and the first Synod, and was the first moderator of 
each of these pioneer courts, nor with his subsequent 
work in North Carolina or Arkansas. 

For us his story begins when in December, 1859, 
he located at Santa Rosa, California, as the pastor 
of this church and of the one at Two Rock. But his 
was a spirit which could not stay. While attending 
faithfully to his pastoral duties in his new field he was 
at the same time reaching out in all directions to 
propagate his faith. “The churches he organized and 
guided in Sonoma county are mentioned elsewhere. 

In 1868 he was elected by the Synod of the 
Pacific, and, after an inexcusable delay, appointed by 
the Board of Home Missions, to the arduous re- 
sponsibility of being Synodical Missionary. The 
vast extent of this Synod will be discussed in the fol- 
lowing chapter. It all belonged to the parish of Dr. 
Fraser. He journeyed over the whole extent of it, 
traveling by land and sea. When he began there 
were few railways; and the mountain roads some- 





. REV. THOMAS FRASER, D.D. 








BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 139 


times ran almost perpendicularly upwards, and some- 
times along the edge of precipices. One needed a 
steady head to travel them. And the accommoda- 
tions in the inns were usually the roughest possible. 

Such was his life for twenty years, much of the 
time deprived of the comforts and joys of home, ex- 
posed to many hardships, but devoted to the found- 
ing of churches, and to their care so long as they were 
weak. Added to this was the duty of correspondence 
with the Board, the churches and the ministers, and, 
in his multifarious tasks, the occasional burden of 
misunderstandings. This was a work for a strong 
man. And Dr. Fraser was a strong man, in intellect 
and soul, if not in body. 

The story of Dr. Fraser’s appointment would be 
instructive, if we had space to tell it in detail. The 
initial movement came from the Synod of the Pacific 
which had now come to realize the necessity of havy- 
ing a man free from the obligations of a parish and 
invested with the authority of the church as a whole 
who could travel through the entire extent of the 
Synod, evangelizing and organizing as he went. 
They fixed his salary at $2500, this amount to in- 
clude his traveling expenses, the Synod agreeing to 
raise one half of the sum from its own membership 
and asking the Board of Domestic Missions to give 
the other half. 

But the Board for the first year of Dr. Fraser’s 
tenure of his office, declined to commission or sup- 
port him. Considering the distance between the 
office of Dr. Musgrove, the secretary of the Board, 
and the place of meeting of the Synod, and the i1m- 
possibility of the Board’s obtaining any reliable in- 
formation about the needs of California except 


140 [Hr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


through Presbyterial and Synodical action, one can- 
not but feel the injustice of such a control from a dis- 
tance. he outcome was that Dr. Fraser during his 
first year of service received $526.89, which was 
about one hundred dollars less than the amount he 
had expended in travel. The Synod at its meeting in 
1869, receiving this report with consternation, raised 
on the spot $503.50 from the various churches repre- 
sented. hey following yyearay Dr.) \Praserespe 
ceived from the Board the sum of $600. After the 
Union of 1870 we do not hear much about the finan- 
cial problem. The amount of service the Synodical 
Missionary rendered seems to have had no relation 
to the amount of salary he received. For a consider- 
able period during Dr. Fraser’s administration of 
his ofhce the churches he founded averaged one a 
month. He is credited with the organization of 
something like one hundred and twenty-five churches 
in all. 

Now we return to Los Angeles. In the spring of 
the year 1869 Dr. Fraser spent two months in ex- 
ploring Southern California. All this travel was 
done by stage. The first day he had a narrow escape 
from a runaway team. He passed through and 
preached in Salinas, Monterey, San Luis Obispo and 
Santa Barbara, and after a long ride by night, which 
he found bitterly cold, he arrived in Los Angeles. 
There he spent two weeks, ‘‘a sad, sorrowful time,” 
he calls it in one of his letters. He tried to find the 
Presbyterian church, or some member of it. He 
says: 


I think I visited everybody in town but could find 
absolutely to trace of it anywhere; I preached several nights; 
finally in the county recorder’s office I found that a deed had 





BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH I41 


been made by the trustees of the Presbyterian Church con- 
veying its entire property to the Episcopal Church; that was 
all I could find. 


The local trustees who had made over the prop- 
erty to Bishop Kip of the Episcopal Church had laid 
down two conditions, namely, that a regular service 
should be maintained by the latter body, and that 
they should refund to the Presbyterian Board of 
Church Erection the sum of $500 expended by 
the Board upon the building. Dr. Fraser found that 
the service had been duly maintained but that the 
money had not been refunded. It was soon after- 
wards paid to him, and as he could do nothing im- 
mediately in Los Angeles, it was used toward the 
erection of the First Presbyterian building in Wil- 
mington, which at this time was called San Pedro. 

But it was also discovered somewhat later that 
this transfer of property had been made by the 
trustees of the local church on their own responsi- 
bility, without vote or sanction of the church, which 
action seriously clouded the title of the Episcopal 
church. This first building stood at the corner of 
Temple and New High Streets, so that the land soon 
became of great value. Litigation ensued, and in 
1882 the property was recovered in part by the 
Presbyterians. When Dr. Young arrived in Los 
Angeles in 1884 the old building was still standing. 
Later it was used as a tax collector’s office. The 
site of it is today included in the court house grounds. 

It was Dr. Fraser’s desire that the Board of Mis- 
sions should send out from the east a man of com- 
manding personality and outstanding pulpit ability 
to represent our church in Los Angeles, in order, if 
possible, to recover the lost ground. Dr. Fraser had 


142 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


made up his mind that this was a strategic point for 
Home Mission work. To Dr. Henry Kendall, the 
secretary of the Board, he wrote that there were 
places which the Presbyterian Church should take 
and hold, regardless of expense, as England held 
Gibraltar, and that Los Angeles was one of them. 
Dr. Kendall replied. “I have read your letter to the 
Board; you hit us hard; hit us again.”” But for the 
time being this was all the satisfaction the Synodical 
Missionary received. The Board had lost faith in 
Los Angeles, and no outstanding preacher was forth- 
coming to give new leadership in that city. 

On February 4, 1894, the First Church of Los 
Angeles celebrated the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of 
the organization of the church, thus dating its foun- 
dation from 1869. But as a matter of fact at that 
time Dr. Fraser was unable to reorganize the church 
as he desired. Even the great statesman of the 
Board of Home Missions, Dr. Henry Kendall, was 
unwilling to seek to revive a work which had died so 
often and it was not until 1874, when the church was 
reorganized, that anything like regular services were 
held. 

Meanwhile we must turn our attention to other 
towns of Southern California in which, under Dr. 
Fraser’s leadership, new congregations were form- 
ing and gathering strength. 

Ventura church was the earliest of the southern 
churches to be organized which continuously retained 
its vitality. In the spring of 1869 the Presbytery 
of San Jose received a petition from thirty-four 
residents there asking for the establishment of a 
church in their community. The Presbytery gladly 
acceded to this request and appointed the Reverend 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 143 


Townsend E. Taylor to effect the organization He 
was assisted by the Reverend S. S. Harmon and the 
Reverend Mr. Bristol of the Congregational Associa- 
tion. The church was organized with twenty mem- 
bers. Mr. Taylor supplied the church until July, 
1870. Its record has been one of quiet, systematic 
growth. This was the only church in the south 
organized by the New School Presbytery prior to the 
reunion. When Dr. Fraser left Los Angeles, where 
he had unsuccessfully endeavored to resuscitate the 
First Church, he turned his face further southwards 
towards San Diego. His journey was a progress 
through a panorama of hills and sea, in the soft, 
warm atmosphere of the early summer. The hill- 
sides were covered by vast herds of cattle, sheep and 
wild horses. Dr. Fraser sat beside the stage drivers, 
with his feet on the buckboard, and learned what they 
had to tell of the immense resources of this beautiful 
land; and he foresaw for it an assured development. 
A new population would soon enter into possession 
of these Mission grants, plant orchards and vine- 
yards, build thriving towns and introduce a genuine 
civilization. Great churches would arise. 

In San Diego he found an old friend, the Rev- 
erend Russell Clark, who formerly had been the 
principal of a flourishing seminary in San Francisco, 
and who, his health failing, had sought a retreat in 
the milder climate of the south. With his help it 
was easy for Dr. Fraser to organize a Presbyterian 
church. This settlement had formerly been the gate- 
way through which the Christian religion had entered 
Alta California. Now the Protestant Church had 
here planted its most distant outpost in the United 
States. San Diego was destined by nature to high 


144 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


importance. ‘The church began with thirteen mem- 
bers. And today after giving off to new churches 
arising in all directions it has more than a hundred 
for every one with which it started on its career. 

Dr. James 8S. McDonald, pioneer in so many fields, 
was the first pastor here, entering upon his new 
charge on April 10, 1870, and holding his services 
in Horton’s Hall. Shortly afterwards, a Mr. J. W. 
Edwards, of Marquette, Michigan, one of the first 
tourists to travel over the new railway line and spend 
the winter in San Diego, gave $600 towards a 
church building. Calvary Church, of San Francisco, 
contributed $300 more, and on June 18, 1871, 
the Presbyterians dedicated their new building, Dr. 
Scott, by that time pastor of St. John’s, San Fran- 
cisco, preaching the sermon. 

Another, and a much more commodious, church 
was built under the pastorate of the Reverend W. 
B. Noble, D.D., in 1887, and the present splendid 
structure was erected in 1912 in the pastorate of the 
Reverend Edwin Forrest Hallenbeck, D.D., under 
whom this great congregation came to its full ma- 
turity. To-day it is a great and flourishing church 
under the strong leadership of the Reverend Wallace 
M. Hamilton, D.D. 

As Dr. Fraser was returning from San Diego, in 
response to an invitation from a company of Presby- 
terians in Santa Barbara, he stopped over there and 
organized another church, which also was predes- 
tined to become great, the First Church of Santa 
Barbara. The meeting for this purpose was held 
on Monday, June 21, 1869. Dr. Fraser had arrived 
by steamer on the Saturday preceding. ‘There were 
eighteen charter members. On the following Sun- 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 145 


day the first service was held in an adobe house on 
the corner of Chahala and Canon Perdido Streets, 
Dr. Fraser preaching. ‘[wenty-five years later, Mrs. 
L. G. Oliver, one of the charter members and the 
wife of the senior elder, gave an account of that 
first service. ‘The congregation had the use of a 
small borrowed organ, of which some of the keys 
were silent; but the people made up for this in the 
lustiness of their singing. A pulpit was improvised 
from a lamp stand, a sewing machine box, and a 
damask table cover. ‘To the evening service the 
worshippers brought their own lamps. They made 
up a Sunday School library out of donations from 
their private libraries, which were not extensive. But 
during the next month they ordered from San Fran- 
cisco a good organ, church hymnals and Sunday 
School supplies. 

The Reverend H. H. Dobbins was the first min- 
ister, being stated supply of the church for two 
years, at a salary of $1,000 a year, one-half of which 
was contributed by the Board of Home Missions. 

After the adobe house, the congregation wor- 
shiped in the school house for a year, then in the 
Court House. Mrs. Oliver tells us that the late- 
comers felt conspicuous when they had to occupy the 
seats in the witness box. The ventilation was not 
perfect. And the small boy who went out of doors 
to get a whiff of fresh air became too much interested 
in looking through the low windows into the jail and 
seeing the prisoners there. 

Certainly a church edifice was needed. The 
people built the house of God before they had houses 
for themselves; for the congregation consisted of 
men and women of culture and position, some of 


146 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


them distinguished college graduates, who were liv- 
ing in shacks until they could get their start in this 
new land of promise. The first church was built at 
the corner of Ortega and De la Vina Streets at a cost 
of $2,300, of which $300 was the gift of Calvary 
Church of San Francisco. It was dedicated free 
from debt, in June, 1871. A second and much more 
imposing building was erected under the pastorate 
of the Reverend Edward Graham, D.D., in 1875, 
and under the ministry of the Reverend Clarence A. 
Spaulding, D.D., the third building was erected, one 
of the most beautiful and most complete of the entire 
Synod. Dr. Spaulding came to the Santa Barbara 
church as minister in 1919, with a distinguished rec- 
ord as a scholar and pastor. He had studied in 
Oxford University as Rhodes Scholar from the State 
of California. The conditions in Santa Barbara were 
ripe for his coming, and in a few years his church 
grew to be one of a thousand members. ‘The splen- 
did new edifice was erected in 1923, and then in 1925 
there came the disastrous earthquake which laid 
Santa Barbara, its homes and its churches, in ruins. 
Dr. Spaulding’s own people had suffered so acutely 
in their private fortunes that in many cases they 
were unable to do much to make good the damage 
to the church. Nevertheless they gathered up their 
courage, took stock of their remaining resources and 
went forward. ‘The church at large has rallied to 
their aid, and soon this great congregation will again 
be meeting in its own church building. 

I quote now an extract from a letter of Dr. 
Fraser written in January, 1921, to Dr. Edgar P. 


Hill: 


Returning home from Santa Barbara I found as usual a 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 147 


great file of letters. ... A few months later a minister 
arrived from the east with good recommendations, who was 
quite willing to try the work in Los Angeles. I gave him 
money for his expenses and all the information in my pos- 
session. He failed totally in Los Angeles but, with the 
strong support of Governor Stoneman’s wife, he organized a 
Presbyterian Church in San Pedro, and with the $500 (before 
referred to) secured the erection of a house of worship. 


Unhappily for this chronicle we are quite unable to 
discover any record of such a church organized in 
San Pedro at this date. There was no such church 
among those which composed the Los Angeles Pres- 
bytery three years later. It seems probable that Dr. 
Fraser here is referring to the Wilmington Church, 
the history of which was so intimately interwoven 
with that of San Pedro. ‘The two Presbyterian min- 
isters who carried on in Los Angeles and vicinity at 
this time, giving intermittent service in the city down 
to the date of 1874, were the Reverend W. C. Hard- 
ing, who has been already mentioned and the Rey- 
erend W. C. Mosher, who became the first Modera- 
tor of the new Presbytery. Our present San Pedro 
church was not organized until 1883. 

In the next three years three other churches in the 
south came into being: namely, Calvary, Wilming- 
ton, organized in 1870; Anaheim, organized in 1870; 
and Westminster, organized in 1872. 

The Reverend William C. Mosher, who spent his 
later years in retirement in the city of Los Angeles, 
and also wrote a “History of the Mosher Family,”’ 
says of himself that in April, 1871, he returned to 
California after an absence, and for three years 
preached to the Presbyterian Church at Wilmington. 
When the Presbytery of Los Angeles was erected 
by the Synod of the Pacific, it was directed to hold 


148 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


its first meeting in this church, which it did on March 
20, 1873, when the Reverend William C. Mosher 
was elected Moderator. 

The strength of this church has fluctuated with 
the passing of the years. During a part of its life- 
time it was supplied by the minister of the San Pedro 
Church. In recent years, owing to the new develop- 
ment of the metropolis, it has grown to real power. 

Anaheim was originally a German colony, of 
marked characteristics, with all the strength and all 
the weakness of the typical German settlement. It 
was always thrifty; and it was sometimes tipsy. But 
the church that once had hold there in 1870, did not 
cease to live and grow. Its first minister was the 
Reverend L. P. Webber. Anaheim is a beautiful, 
prosperous modern city, with another effective 
church. 

Westminster Church (located in Westminster, and 
not to be confused with the Westminster Church of 
Los Angeles, which is our colored church and which 
will be mentioned later) was organized on March 
17, 1872, with seven members in a district of homes. 
Its first minister was the Rev. L. P. Webber, who was 
also pastor of the Anaheim Church, and one of the 
founders of Westminster Colony. It continued for 
a long time without much change, or increase of 
strength, its ministers being all stated supplies. Then 
with the strong, new currents of life which have 
swept across the southern land in recent years, it has 
made rapid progress, and is today a substantial 
church of some two hundred members. 

These then were the six churches which composed 
the new Presbytery of Los Angeles in 1872. But 
the First Church of Los Angeles was not among 


BEGINNINGS OF Los ANGELES AND SOUTH 149 


them. According to Dr. Fraser’s narrative three 
more ministers had tried and failed to effect a last- 
ing organization. Other ministers acknowledged the 
importance of the work, but declined to undertake 
it. One minister, after faithful effort, declared that 
it was the hardest nut to crack he had ever tried, and 
heartsick he returned to the east, and died there. 
Dr. Kendall himself visited the field, and when later 
he heard of Dr. Fraser’s persistent determination 
to occupy and hold it, he wrote him: “TI see you still 
have faith in Los Angeles. After all our failures 
you must work it on your faith—and not on mine.” 
When Dr. Fraser received this letter he handed it 
to his wife and said: “I shall go to Los Angeles and 
establish a Presbyterian Church, even if it takes six 
months.” 

On reaching Los Angeles he found no change in 
the situation except that several new Presbyterian 
families had moved into the place, with the prospect 
of more to follow. Two of the ministers who had 
unsuccessfully tried to launch the church were still 
living in the town, one making his living by deliver- 
ing milk, and the other by teaching a school com- 
posed of half a dozen young Mexicans. Both were 
willing to give assistance, but the Synodical Mission- 
ary felt that in view of the past history of the place 
he would do better to proceed alone. He made 
arrangements for preaching in the Court House, and 
posted notices to that effect. On the Sabbath he had 
a good congregation and told the people to prepare 
for regular church work. Every one seemed happy. 
Dr. Fraser resolved to take time and do the work 
thoroughly. 

Meanwhile he made a trip to San Bernardino, 


150 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


seventy miles to the east, and found there a situation 
which on a smaller scale was almost identical with 
that in Los Angeles. Here a good physician, a Dr. 
Craig, who formerly had been a Presbyterian elder, 
came forward to offer his support. The Methodist 
minister offered the use of his church and on the 
Sabbath Dr. Fraser preached to a large congregation 
and announced that in two weeks he would return 
and preach again. He then returned to Los Angeles, 
resumed his canvass which he made from door to 
door, preached on the Sabbath and gave notice that 
in two weeks’ time he would organize a Presbyte- 
rian Church. On the following Sunday in San Ber- 
nardino, in the Methodist Church, he organized a 
Presbyterian Church of twelve members. 

The time had come for decisive action in Los 
Angeles. On the Sabbath, January 11, 1874, the 
good missionary faced a large congregation in the 
Court House and there organized (or reorganized, 
as some prefer to say) the First Presbyterian Church 
with twenty substantial members. “Iwo elders were 
ordained and installed. ‘This church never failed, 
though at the time of its organization it was des- 
tined for some stormy days in the history yet unborn. 
But from now on, with some interruptions, the 
church grew steadily with the increase of population. 
During the period from 1874 to 1879 it was supplied 
by the Reverend Drs. A. F. White, W. J. McKnight, 
W. F. P. Noble, and F. M. Cunningham. Ina few 
years it was able to erect a building which cost 
$50,000 and to pay its pastor $4,000 a year. 

Thus did 1874 begin with the organization in the 
south of two such churches as San Bernardino and 


First Church, Los Angeles. 


SHTHAONV SOT ‘HONNHO NVIYALAISAYd LSI 


Ld 








CHAPTER IX 


THE REUNION PERIOD AND THE ORGAN- 
IZATION OF THE PRESBYTERIES 


OWHERE, in the wide range of the entire na- 
tion, was the reunion of the two branches of the 
Presbyterian church more heartily welcomed than in 
California. Here it had been recognized that rivalry 
and duplication of effort were positively injurious to 
the work they were supposed to advance. And the 
two branches of the church had learned in quiet and 
effective ways to support and not to antagonize one 
another. ‘They were accustomed to welcome the 
ministers of the other side into their discussions in 
Presbyteries and Synods; and an exchange of pulpits 
was freely made across the dividing line. Indeed 
this line had become almost obliterated, as the men 
of the reunion period had learned that they could 
trust one another in faith and conduct, and in the 
interpretation of their common creed. For instance 
in the Minutes of the Synod of Alta California of 
1863 we read 


“On motion it was resolved that when we adjourn, we 
adjourn to meet with the Synod of the Pacific, at their 
request, in Calvary Church, at nine o'clock to-morrow 
morning to spend an hour together in devotional exercises.” 


I5I 


152 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


In the direct work of negotiating the union the 
ministers of the coast could have but little part, so 
far were they then removed from the administrative 
center of the ecclesiastical organization. No min- 
ister of the Pacific Coast was upon any of the 
negotiating committees. For that matter neither was 
any minister west of Minnesota; though it was the 
aim of the Assemblies to give representation to all 
parts of the country in these important bodies of con- 
ference. But if the Pacific Coast had been directly 
represented, the action of the committees of dis- 
cussion and conference could not have been more 
agreeable to the members of the western Synods than 
it was. In this connection it is worth remembering 
that the Report of the Committee on Reunion was 
submitted to the Assemblies of 1868, and the Plan 
of Reunion together with the concurrent Declara- 
tions of the General Assemblies was adopted and 
issued by the Assemblies meeting in New York on 
May 17, 1869. It was on May to that the first 
transcontinental railroad was completed. 

In 1870 there was effected the fusion of the Synod 
of the Pacific and the Synod of Alta California. We 
have already given* a résumé of the statistics of 
the two Synods for the years 1855 and 1860. In 
order that the progress of the church in the decade 
of reunion may be thus graphically apparent let us 
here give the statistics of the years 1865 and 1870. 
In so doing we put down separately the statistics of 
the Presbytery of Oregon. 


1P. 106. 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 153 


1865 The Synod of the Pacific (O. S.) 


Ministers. Churches. Members. 











Presbytery of Benicia 8 10 Qn 
Presbytery of California 15 4 862 
Presbytery of Stockton 8 6 141 
31 20 1234 
Presbytery of Oregon 6 8 207 
Total in Synod 27 28 1441 

1870 
Ministers. Churches. Members. 
Presbytery of Benicia 12 10 216 
Presbytery of California 15 8 1182 
Presbytery of Stockton ‘) 10 337 
34 38 1735 
Presbytery of Oregon 8 9 308 
Total in Synod 42 aur 2043 


1865 The Synod of Alta California (N. S.) 


Ministers. Churches. Members, 


Presbytery of San Francisco 7 B 229 
Presbytery of Sierra Nevada 5 4 175 
Presbytery of San Jose II 9 pies 
Presbytery of Washoe 4 3 53 
Total in Synod 27 19 729 

1870 
Ministers. Churches. Members. 
Presbytery of San Francisco II 5 651 
Presbytery of Nevada 9 Gy 454. 
Presbytery of San Jose 12 TZ 584 


Total in Synod 32 24 1689 


154 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


In reference to the New School reports it is to 
be noted that the Presbytery of Washoe was erected 
by the Synod of Alta California in 1863 to include 
all the work of the Synod lying within the boundaries 
of the Territory of Nevada. Early in the sixties 
there was a considerable movement of the mining 
population out of California into the region of the 
new mines of Nevada. Carson City and Virginia 
City were places of relatively large importance, the 
former having about 50 members and the latter 
about twice this number. But in 1868, after the 
railway had linked up to some extent the scattered 
communities east of the mountains with those on the 
other side, the Presbyteries of Sierra Nevada and 
Washoe were joined under the name of the Nevada 
Presbytery. 

The two Synods of the uniting churches appear in 
the Minutes of the General Assembly of 1870 under 
their former names and in separate classifications, 
but they were completely fused by the action of this 
Assembly and, according to its appointment met in 
Howard Church, San Francisco, on July 12, 1870, 
as a united body. ‘They convened as eight Presby- 
teries, and reorganized themselves into five, namely 
Benicia, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento and 
Oregon. All the Presbyteries were strongly repre- 
sented except Oregon, which by reason of distance 
was not represented then and was seldom repre- 
sented afterwards, and then generally only by one 
minister, so long as it was connected with the Synod 
of California 

The field occupied by the new Synod was of 
immense extent and vast importance. As stated in 
the action of the Assembly it was “‘to embrace all 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 155 


) 


the region west of the Rocky Mountains.” From its 
southernmost church on San Diego Bay to its north- 
ernmost on Puget Sound was a distance of more than 
1500 miles. Proceeding from north to south in the 
definition of the boundaries of the Presbyteries, that 
of Oregon included the State of Oregon, the Terri- 
tory of Washington; and, though not specifically 
mentioned by the Assembly, the Territory of Alaska. 
Sacramento Presbytery included the entire Sacra- 
mento Valley, and beyond to the Oregon line, the 
State of Nevada, and the Territories of Idaho, 
Montana and Utah. Benicia Presbytery included all 
the land in Northern California north of the Golden 
Gate and the Sacramento River which was not in- 
cluded in Sacramento Presbytery. San Francisco 
Presbytery, which was then the stronghold of the 
church upon the coast, included the counties of San 
Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa and part of 
Alameda. San Jose Presbytery took in part of 
Alameda County and thence extended south and 
east indefinitely to include the counties of Santa 
Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, 
Tulare, Inyo, Kern, San Bernardino and the Terri- 
tory of Arizona. This is the largest extent of 
American territory which has ever been embraced 
within the limits of a single Synod; and the name 
Synod of the Pacific was a modest rather than a 
grandiose title. 

To anticipate future action in order to complete 
our survey of the history of the limits of our Synod, 
we note that in 1876 the General Assembly separated 
from the Synod of the Pacific the territory contained 
in Oregon, Washington and Alaska and erected it 
into the Synod of the Columbia. Subsequently other 


156 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


divisions were set off so that gradually the Synod of 
the Pacific was divested of Arizona, Idaho and 
Utah; and in 1892, when the General Assembly met 
in Portland its boundaries were made coterminous 
with the limits of the States of California and 
Nevada and, in accordance with the petition of the 
Synod made at its previous meeting, its name was 
changed to the Synod of California. 

According to the Minutes of the General Assem- 
bly of 1871 this vast Synod contained 84 ministers, 
and 4539 members, of whom twenty per cent were 
in the Presbytery of Oregon. It was also stated in 
the Synod’s narrative of the State of Religion that 
the total population of this territory was a million 
souls, most of whom lived in sparsely settled dis- 
tricts. San Francisco was the one large city, claim- 
ing at that time a population of about 200,000. The 
three strongest churches in the Synod were all located 
in San Francisco and were as follows: Howard, with 
§82 members; Calvary, with 480; and First, with 
386. The First Church, of San Jose, had 207 mem- 
bers; St. John’s Church, of San Francisco, had 160; 
First Church, of Oakland, had 105; First Church, 
of Stockton, had 175; Westminster Church, of Sacra- 
mento, had 154. The ill-starred Central Church of 
San Francisco, which afterwards disappeared com- 
pletely, was at this time credited with 230 members. 

On October 3, 1872, the Synod of the Pacific, 
meeting in Gilroy, decided to divide the Presbytery 
of San Jose and to erect the Presbytery of Los 
Angeles in the south, this Presbytery to extend over 
the counties of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San 
Diego and San Bernardino in California, and the 
Territory of Arizona. It contained six churches, 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 157 


namely: Santa Barbara, San Buenaventura, Wil- 
mington, Anaheim, Westminster and San Diego; and 
on the roll of ministers were the Reverends Joshua 
L. Phelps, D.D.; Lemuel P. Webber, Hugh H. 
Dobbins, John Marquis and William D. Mosher. 
Though First Church of Los Angeles was not one 
of the constituent churches, on the confident faith of 
Dr. Fraser the name of Los Angeles was given to 
the new Presbytery. It was ordered to hold its first 
meeting in the church at Wilmington, ‘‘on the third 
Thursday in March,” which was done. The Rev. 
Joshua L. Phelps, D.D., who had been appointed 
convenor of the new Presbytery, preached the open- 
inpecriMmoOnwiromutihoet text leu lfol toraet: thee; *O) 
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if [ 
remember thee not, if I prefer not Jerusalem above 
PyeCuicne | Overcinsmil 37 05.0 l) Lneakeves VEC 
Mosher was elected the first moderator. And thus 
was inaugurated one of the greatest Presbyteries of 
the church. In 1873, the first year of its independ- 
Entw existencemmtnis s Presbyterye reported. tow the 
Assembly: 9 ministers, 6 churches, 175 members. 
The General Assembly of 1880 transferred the ter- 
ritory of Arizona to the Presbytery of Santa Fe, 
leaving to Los Angeles Presbytery the land lying 
within the present boundaries of Los Angeles, 
Riverside and Santa Barbara Presbyteries. 

The history of the subsequent organization of the 
several Presbyteries can be quickly told. In 1885 
the Presbytery of Stockton was formed by detaching 
from the Sacramento Presbytery the churches in the 
vicinity of Stockton and those springing up in the 
San Joaquin valley. In 1891 the Presbytery of Oak- 


158 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


land was erected and given all the territory of the 
former Presbytery of San Francisco on the east side 
of the Bay. In 1896, after repeated ineffectual 
petitions to Synod, the Presbytery of Santa Barbara 
was organized, and given as its territory the coun- 
ties of Ventura and Santa Barbara. In 1902 Synod 
erected the Presbytery of Riverside to consist of the 
ministers and churches within the bounds of the coun- 
ties of San Bernardino and Riverside. Both of these 
last two actions reduced the area of the Los Angeles 
Presbytery. In 1906, consequent upon the union 
with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which 
contained a large number of churches in the San 
Joaquin Valley, the name of Stockton Presbytery was 
changed for that of San Joaquin. In 1907 the 
Presbytery of Nevada, consisting of the State of 
Nevada, was erected out of the territory previously 
belonging to the Presbytery of Sacramento. ‘The 
final change in the boundaries of the Presbyteries up 
to the date of this writing was made in 1916, when 
the Synod reunited the Presbyteries of San Francisco 
and Oakland, calling the united Presbytery by the 
name of San Francisco-Oakland, which name was 
altered in the following year to San Francisco Pres- 
bytery. Thus today the Synod contains nine Presby- 
teries which in the order of their erection are San 
Francisco, Benicia, Sacramento, San Jose, Los 
Angeles, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Riverside and 
Nevada. Subsequently, each of these will be dealt 
with separately. 

But now let us return to the date of the reunion of 
the Old School and New School Presbyteries, from 
which emerged the whole of the later ecclesiastical 
development. This is not merely a history of organi- 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 159 


_ zation, which is a mechanical thing unless it is in- 
spired with love and faith and enthusiasm; and it 
so happens that amid a pile of old books left in the 
basement of Scott Hall by some one, no one knows 
whom, possibly Dr. Robert Mackenzie, there is a 
scrap book containing specimens of all the concert 
programs, Sabbath School tickets, and church reports 
of the Howard Presbyterian Church of San Fran- 
cisco covering the years 1867-77. It is a most 
illuminating book. It shows the church at work. It 
is reliable contemporary history. And out of this 
volume we can gather the sense of the life of the 
church of the period. 

It opens with a number of newspaper cuttings re- 
garding “Dr. Scudder’s New Church.” It is evident 
that the pastor, the Rev. Henry W. Scudder, D.D., 
was a personality who loomed large in the life of the 
community. The papers were willing to give him 
space; and the papers were tremendously interested 
in the architecture of the new edifice which was 
erected on Mission Street, between Third and Fourth 
Streets. Indeed they conducted a controversy as to 
the merits of this architecture, one paper praising the 
building because of the absence of “gewgaws’’ on 
its front, and another paper explaining that the rear 
of the building, as it towers above the surrounding 
edifices, is thoroughly suggestive of the “sawdust. 
The entrance also seems singularly narrow and 
cramped.” Still another paper throws out the idea 
that ‘‘as the Reverend Doctor’s style partakes 
largely of the melodramatic, and his congregation 
has set the example of applauding his telling points, 
it might not be inappropriate to finish the interior 
in the style of a first-class theater. This is an age 


160 ‘Hr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


of progress.” Generally the tone of the papers is 
one of gratification and congratulation over the fine 
new achievement of this church, and of appreciation 
of the service it was rendering the city, and of joy 
at the increase of church attendance in this and many 
of the other churches. The main ‘Auditorium’ 
would accommodate 1300 persons comfortably. 

Upon the occasion of the dedication of the church 
it was crowded to the doors. The pastor preached, 
and was assisted by nine of his brethren, chiefly of 
the New School of Presbyterianism. Dr. Willey, 
the founder of the church and at this time the acting 
president of the University of California, read the 
Eighty-fourth Psalm. The service was beautiful, 
and dignified, with depth and power. Among the 
ofhcers of the church, whose names were printed on 
the last page of the program of the dedicatory ser- 
vice were William A. Palmer, Wales L. Palmer, 
Samuel I. C. Swezey, George $8. Mann, D. O. Mills 
and Isaac E. Davis, all leading men in church ‘and 
state. From a statement of the trustees we learn 
that those contributing had been “requested to sub- 
scribe only what they could cheerfully set apart for 
this new enterprise. No sum would be regarded too 
small, and none too large.” 

Members were not lightly received into the church 
in those days, but those entering had to make a full 
and public confession of faith and to enter into a 
solemn covenant with God and the church. Even 
those who joined by letter from other churches had 
to enter into covenant, by stern and binding vows. 
The covenant was modified in detail from time to 
time, new editions of it appearing in several suc- 
cessive years, but the essentials remained the same. 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 161 


The social side of the church was not un- 
important. There were concerts held, some- 
times in the church, sometimes in a public music 
hall, in which were given programs of great classical 
music, rendered not only by professional artists, but 
also by members of the church choir, and greeted 
by full houses. ‘There was a Ladies’ Fair in Platt’s 
Hall, extending over a week in 1866, and a May 
Festival for three days in the following year. Dr. 
Scudder was himself greatly in demand as a popular 
lecturer, and he had a favorite lecture on ‘‘The 
Hindu Mutiny and the American Rebellion.” 

The Sunday School was evidently a great institu- 
tion, attended by nearly six hundred scholars, and 
when the anniversary day came around there were 
songs by the whole school and by individual chil- 
dren, and recitations and speeches. ‘here were two 
Sabbath School libraries, one for the pupils which 
consisted for the most part of stories and simple 
religious narratives and another for the officers and 
teachers which included some of the best books of 
theaday upon the lite or Christiethe Jite: of Paul, 
the histories of the Old and New Testaments, the 
history of the Bible and the church, and the geog- 
raphy of Palestine. And it is evident from the 
records that the teachers read these books, and were 
indeed very well equipped for their work of teach- 
ing. The probability is that the Sabbath School 
teacher of that day and in that school was as well 
furnished for his task as are any of the teachers of 
today, except those who have been professionally 
trained. There were well-filled Bible Classes for 
both men and women from which were chosen most 
of the new teachers. Every Friday evening at eight 


162 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


o’clock there was held a Teacher’s meeting for an 
hour or more at which was studied the Sabbath 
School lesson for the following Sabbath, as well as 
some more general and systematic subject. 

The annual Sabbath School picnic was a great 
event of the church year, participated in by old and 
young, rich and poor. For instance, there is the 
announcement and program of the picnic to be 
held on May 2nd, 1872. For some weeks in ad- 
vance the committee met at the church on Friday 
nights, and on Wednesday nights after the prayer 
meeting, to perfect its plans. The date was fixed 
on a Saturday afternoon, earlier in the year than 
usual in order that the crowd might enjoy the green 
grass and profusion of wild flowers in Belmont Park. 
A special train was chartered to leave the San Jose 
Depot on Valencia Street, at 8:45 A.M., arriving at 
Belmont at 10:30, and leaving Belmont for the re- 
turn at 4 P.M., arriving in the city at 5:30. The 
round trip tickets cost one dollar for adults, and fifty 
cents for children, but any member of the church or 
Sabbath School who had not the price of a ticket 
could obtain one for nothing from Mr. S. J. C. 
Swezey. For some weeks in advance reserved seat 
tickets were sold without additional cost in order to 
permit families and groups of friends to travel to- 
gether. Everybody took a basket and was happy. 
There were tea and coffee provided for the older 
people and lemonade for the children. ‘There were 
games at the picnic grounds, where the boys ran 
three-legged races and sack races; and the lady 
teachers, who did not then wear short skirts, played 
baseball. All was fun, all was good nature. The 
children returned home in the evening, very tired and 








REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 163 


badly spotted as to their clothes; the young ones 
being towed sideways by their mothers through the 
streets to their homes. 

There is another side to the life of the church not 
so happy. The pews were leased at a fixed price per 
quarter. ‘The plan of the church was printed as con- 
cert hall plans are printed. today, with the price of 
every pew noted upon it, the most desirable locations 
having the higher valuation, and the less desirable 
the lower. The price of pews was generally from 
twelve to thirty dollars a quarter. Pew number 46 
was set apart and labelled for the pastor’s family. 
Pews in arrears could be relet, without the consent 
of the former lessees. Pew rents were the chief 
source of income of the church. In the vestibule of 
the church there was the following placard posted in 
several conspicuous places. 


NOTICE 


Many of the seats in this church are taken and paid for 
by members of the Society, and are to be reserved for the 
holders until the services commence. VISITORS are therefore 
requested Nor to occupy the Pews, either in the Gallery or 
in the Body of the House, UNTIL SHOWN TO THE SAME BY 
AN USHER, who will make every effort to meet the reason- 
able wishes of all. 


The finances were helped out by concerts, fairs 
and socials. [here was upon one occasion a high 
rivalry between the Howard Church, of which Dr. 
Scudder was pastor, and the First Church, of which 
Dr. Eells was then pastor, as to which of the two 
could raise the larger sum of money by a concert 
for the benefit of the church. Dr. Eell’s church had 


just succeeded in raising $1200 in one grand effort in 


164 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


which the entire congregation had exerted itself. 
The members of the Howard Church were exhorted 
to emulate this good example. 

There was also a Howard Social Union which met 
in the church on the first Thursday evening of each 
month, when there was a program of music and read- 
ings. On one evening we read that the concert 
closed with a grand finale when “Home, Sweet 
Home” was played, introducing a chime of thirty- 
two bells, drums, cymbals, anvils, triangles, and other 
instruments. ‘Chere was a good deal of wholesome 
hilarity at these meetings, and a systematic effort was 
made to introduce strangers and make them feel at 
home. ‘Refreshments were kindly furnished by the 
ladies of the congregation.” 

Such are the pictures of the life of a typical, well- 
organized church in San Francisco in the reunion 
period. Howard Church was not different from the 
other churches of the day, it was only larger and 
more effective in carrying out a working program 
which was common to all. 

The preaching of the day was powerful. It was 
more theological, more oratorical, than most of our 
congregations of the present day would care to 
listen to; but it brought sinners face to face with 
God and resulted in conversions, and it trained the 
members of the churches in the knowledge of their 
faith. It is quite certain that the average church 
member of 1870 was more intelligent in his personal 
creed than is he of today. On the other hand his 
personal creed was far more likely to be identical 
with the formal creed of his church than it is at the 
present time. 

The ministers of the reunion period, the Reverend 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 165 


Doctors Scott, Cunningham, Wadsworth, Hemphill, 
Scudder, Carpenter, Macdonald, Lindsley, Willey, 
Parr, Walsworth and others, are referred to else- 
where, and here receive only this passing mention. 
But certain of the elders of the church who gave it 
character and strength should in this place have some 
further notice. 

Conspicuous among these was the Hon. Henry 
Huntley Haight, who was governor of the State of 
California at the time of the reunion and whose 
printed speeches, which have been preserved among 
our valued Californiana, prove him to have been a 
true statesman and patriot as well as a humble and 
earnest Christian soul. He was born at Rochester, 
New York, on May 20, 1825. On his father’s side 
his ancestry was English; on his mother’s side it 
was Scotch. His father, Fletcher M. Haight, was 
a lawyer of distinguished ability who was appointed, 
by President Lincoln, Judge of the United States 
Court for the Southern District of California, to 
which he had removed in 1854. ‘The son took part 
in founding Calvary Church and was early elected 
an Elder. After his inauguration as governor and 
during his residence in Sacramento he taught a Bible 
Class in the Sunday School of Westminster Presby- 
terian Church, thus in the midst of his high public 
duties, conspicuously identifying himself with the 
work of the Church of Christ. He refused to trans- 
act the business of the state upon the Sabbath Day. 
There is also a significant incident concerning him in 
the early records of Calvary Church when he con- 
tributed two hundred dollars for the purchase of 
parts of the Chinese Scriptures to be distributed 
among the Chinese. He was a member of the Board 


166 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


of Regents of the University of California, whose 
charter he signed as governor; he was also a director 
of the San Francisco Theological Seminary His 
address delivered in Sacramento on May 8, 1869, 
upon the completion of the Pacific Railroad, was one 
of the most eloquent and prophetic utterances ever 
made by a governor of the State of California 

Mr. Nathaniel Gray, Senior, was an Elder of dis- 
tinction in the First Church of San Francisco at this 
time. He, with Mr. Frederick Billings, to whom we 
have already referred, was largely instrumental in 
the founding and maintaining throughout its early 
years of the California Bible Society, which was 
later merged in the American Bible Society. He 
was active in the work of the Y. M. C. A., a director 
of the Old People’s Home, and a trustee of the 
San Francisco Benevolent Society. He was one of 
the earliest benefactors of the San Francisco 
Theological Seminary, in which the Chair of Hebrew 
Exegesis and Old Testament Literature bears his 
name. ‘The same honored name is borne by the Hall 
of Science at Mills College, Oakland. In various 
and divergent ways his wise and kindly influence can 
be traced through the years of the reunion period 
and down to 1899, when he passed away mourned by 
many people. 

We should not close this chapter without a refer- 
ence to one more minister, the Reverend Henry 
Loomis, D.D., a member of the Presbytery of 
Benicia. In the earlier years of his ministry he had 
a struggle with ill health, and this fact determined 
many of his movements. He was appointed at first 
as a missionary at Fuchou, China, and afterwards 
to Japan, but by reason of sickness was soon com- 


REUNION PERIOD AND ORGANIZATION 167 


pelled to return to America in 1872, and for nine 
years made his home in San Rafael. As colporteur 
and itinerant preacher he had a wide influence; and, 
in 1882, he returned to Japan, where for more than 
thirty years he served as the representative of the 
American Bible Society. 

Already the lines of the church in California were 
being extended to the lands across the Pacific. 


CHAPTER X 


THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE 
NORTH TO 1902 


Wt have seen the wonderful new organization 
effected in the union of the two great branches 
of our church, and have traced the ramifications of 
this organization through the Synods and Presby- 
teries of the coast. With the reunion there came 
a new uprush of vitality in the soul of the church, 
a new power to overcome difficulties, a new sense 
of access to the throne of grace, and a new conscious- 
ness of the glorious efficiency for service of the 
life that is filled with the spirit of the living God. 
This new life manifested itself in many ways, in the 
founding of a theological seminary and other insti- 
tutions of higher learning, in the planting of scores 
of new churches and in increased membership of the 
old ones, in new philanthropic enterprise in the home 
field and in new interest in the missionary field in 
foreign lands. 

We now have to pass in review the new churches 
founded in northern California from the date of the 
reunion in 1870 to that of the fiftieth anniversary 
of the founding of the Synod in 1902. We will deal 
first with the churches established around the Bay 
of San Francisco, then with those in the Presbytery 
of Benicia, then with those in Sacramento Presby- 
tery, excluding however the churches in Nevada; 

168 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH _ 169 


then with those in the San Joaquin Valley; and finally 
with those in San Jose Presbytery. Owing to the 
limits of space we must content ourselves in many 
cases with little more than the mention of the name 
of the new church. 

It is a period of very rapid growth and this owing 
to several causes, the rapid increase of the popula- 
tion of the country, the opening up of new agricul- 
tural lands, and the subdivision and intensive culti- 
vation of lands already occupied, the extension of 
railways, and other such general causes of increase 
in all departments of the life of the state. Another 
cause was the growing strength and efficiency of the 
church itself, which having attained a high degree 
of influence in some communities now increased in 
numbers and resources with a natural momentum. 
With the opening of the railway to the east it be- 
came easier to secure suitable ministers for the new 
fields, and the rise of the seminary soon began to 
produce a new supply of coast men trained on the 
coast. The Board of Home Missions was also now 
expending larger sums upon California. For the 
six years following 1870 its contributions to the 
work of the coast averaged $25,000 a year. Prac- 
tically every church founded throughout this period 
received Home Mission money in its inception. But 
above all, we are told by Dr. Fraser in his report 
to the Synod of 1876, the minsters and people alike 
had a growing faith, and an increasing confidence 
that the preaching of the gospel of redemption by 
the Son of God would build the church. The preach- 
ing of the word was the proof of the presence of 
Christ and the earnest of ultimate success. 

A significant fact of this period is that the churches 


170 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


of the coast are now making contributions to the 
Board of Home Missions. In 1871 they contrib- 
ited A SO22 CAM in 872, Mita CeO? sella Lonaae 
$1652.86; in 1874, $1740.50; in 1875, $5203.66; 
in 1876, $2818.47. It will be seen from this state- 
ment that the contributions were still erratic, and not 
reliable and standardized as they became later, when 
the western churches had more fully realized a sense 
of responsibility for their share of the church’s work 
as a whole. ‘The year 1876 was a critical one in the 
finances of the church, especially in Home Missions, 
and the Board in order to escape bankruptcy had to 
reduce its appropriations by $75,000. Ultimately 
this meant acute suffering to the wives and children 
of home missionaries, whose meager salaries on the 
frontier were generally barely sufficient at the best 
of times. In many rural districts of California it 
meant heroic, silent suffering. But from the very 
beginning the stronger congregations on the coast 
had recognized their obligations toward the weaker, 
and had given them help both in the erection of their 
buildings and in the support of their ministers, and 
under the strong appeals of the leaders of 1876 this 
sense of responsibility was made greater. 

There was another problem which emerged from 
the new growth of this period. When Dr. Fraser 
was first appointed Synodical Missionary in 1868 it 
was with the idea that he should visit unoccupied 
fields, give such occasional service as he found pos- 
sible, and ultimately establish new churches. During 
the decade following reunion the number of these 
new churches multiplied so greatly that it became im- 
possible for him to spend much time in exploring 
outside territory. His whole energy was absorbed 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 17! 


in caring for the new, weak churches, many of which 
had been started in a more or less irresponsible way 
by other ministers of a more sanguine, or a less 
sensible, temperament, than the Synodical Mission- 
ary himself. Indeed there were some of the good 
brethren of that day who seemed to think that the 
success of their ministry was evidenced by the num- 
ber of new churches they were able to organize, 
without regard to whether these churches were 
rightly planted or gave any promise of fruitfulness. 
Some of them, amid unpromising surroundings, 
disclosed amazing vitality. Others naturally died. 
But there was here a grave problem for Home Mis- 
sion statesmanship. Should every such weak church 
be held and maintained? Should the church always 
snold) the tort’: The answer emerged’ in the 
struggle of the day. Holding forts never conquers 
a country. he conquering army advances, and it 
consolidates its gains. 

The story of this period is chiefly one of advance 
into new fields. 

And now the Home Mission Committees of the 
several Presbyteries became increasingly effective. 
In San Francisco and Los Angeles the leading pas- 
tors and elders were all whole-heartedly enlisted in 
the forward movement, acquainting themselves with 
the dependent fields, giving time and thought and 
money to their needs, and in the process of the work 
acquiring the strength and skill of experience. 

We begin now with the churches of San Francisco, 
which have their origin in the middle years of 1870- 
1902. 

St. John’s, San Francisco, was organized in 1870 


by the Rev. W. A. Scott, D.D., with forty mem- 


172 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


bers. He had returned to the city after an absence 
of some five years and his church at once became the 
recognized home of a large number of the old South- 
ern families, resident in the city, who had fully sym- 
pathized with the attitude of Dr. Scott while he 
was pastor of Calvary Church, and, perhaps, gone 
somewhat beyond him. Back in his beloved city, 
Dr. Scott’s health, which had suffered somewhat 
from the buffetings of the years of conflict, now re- 
gained its earlier buoyancy. His voice again became 
vibrant, and his eyes glowed as in the old days. 
Under his ministry the church which had its first 
location on Post Street, near Stockton Street, grew 
rapidly. Later it was moved to the corner of Cali- 
fornia and Octavia Streets, where it occupied a large 
and well-equipped building. Following Dr. Scott's 
death it had a strong succession of ministers, but 
nevertheless declined in members and influence, un- 
til in 1901 the people of Calvary Church purchased 
its property in order to prevent a foreclosure by the 
bank for debt. The young pastor of that date, the 
Reverend George G. Eldredge, D.D., and the people 
of St. John’s Church, united with the congregation 
of Calvary in worship, until in 1905, Mr. A. W. 
Foster, of San Rafael, the son-in-law of Dr. Scott, 
erected at his own cost the present building at the 
corner of Arguello Boulevard and Lake Street, and 
presented it as a gift to the people of the church. It 
contains two beautiful windows, one commemorative 
of Dr Scott, and the other of Mr. Newhall, one 
of its former elders. The present pastor is the 
Reverend William A. Philips, D.D., under whose 


ministry the church membership has increased 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 173 


to 452, though now it has lost something of its for- 
mer distinctive Southern quality. 

On February 12, 1871, there was organized by 
the Reverend W. W. Brier the church of Liver- 
more, which was then a town in an upland valley of 
wheat. ‘[oday the fruit crowds the wheat. ‘The 
church has had no unusual growth at any time, but 
it has steadily held upon its way, ministering to the 
community, and, like scores of undistinguished 
churches, standing to the glory of God and shedding 
light and life over a whole country side. The value 
of the work of all such churches, country churches 
and small town churches, is incalculable. They do 
not die and they do not greatly grow, but they are 
steady centers of the irradiation of goodness. ‘The 
present pastor is the Reverend Edwin B. Hays. 

Memorial Church, of San Francisco, was or- 
ganized on March 19, 1871, and named to com- 
memorate the reunion. For a time it was grouped 
with Olivet Church and afterwards separated. Lo- 
cated in the southern part of the city, it seemed to 
have a promising future in the decade preceding the 
San Francisco fire of 1906; but this disaster changed 
its neighborhood into one of warehouses, and after 
forty years of existence the church disappeared 

The First German Church, of Oakland, was or- 
ganized by Dr. Poor, with thirty-three members in 
1872, and it also soon served its day and its mem- 
bers were absorbed into the English-speaking 
churches. Almost at the same time and in the same 
way the First German Church of San Francisco 
arose and disappeared. 

In 1873, the church at Menlo Park was organized, 


174 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


chiefly through the activity of Dr. Coon, who previ- 
ously had been an elder in Calvary Church. It is 
still alive, with a new promise today. 

On March 22, 1875, there was organized by Dr. 
Fraser and Dr. Eells acting together the First 
Church of San Pablo with fifteen members. This 
church was afterwards merged in the Richmond 
Church, but it is significant as being the first move- 
ment of Presbyterianism northward along the east 
shore of the Bay from the First Church of Oakland. 

Pleasanton Church was organized on October 15, 
1876, in a beautiful valley, south of Oakland. 

Woodbridge Church was organized in San Fran- 
cisco in 1876, to minister to the Mission District, 
under the pastorate of the Reverend Sylvester 
Woodbridge, D.D., of whom we have already read. 
The church promised well at the outset, but Dr. 
Woodbridge died on April 1, 1883, and the congre- 
gation, badly harassed by debt, and discouraged by 
the loss of several pastors, sold its building in Feb- 
ruary, 1893, to the Second Unitarian Church, and 
was dissolved by Presbytery in the following April. 
Another of the San Francisco Churches which did 
not survive, Centennial Church, San Francisco, was 
organized in the Mechanics’ Pavilion on February 
20, 1876, with eighty-eight members, and dissolved 
by Presbytery on December 30, 1878. 

The French Church of San Francisco originated 
in a mission to the French residents of the city con- 
ducted by the Reverend Edward Verrue, dating 
from November, 1876. The Board of Home Mis- 
sions contributed $1000 a year to this mission, which 
was regularly organized into a Presbyterian Church 
on January 4, 1895, with the Reverend E. J. Du- 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 175 


prey as minister. In 1904, it disappeared having 
done an important work in a period of transition. 

On March 18, 1877, the West Berkeley Church 
was organized by the Reverend James Curry, D.D., 
and the Reverend David McClure, D.D., with nine 
members. It was the first of the Presbyterian 
churches to be organized within the territory which 
ultimately was embraced in the University city. Its 
task was never an easy one, and in the ante-prohibi- 
tion days it was particularly difficult because the 
state law prohibited the sale of alcohol within a 
mile of the State University and the West Berke- 
ley Church was just beyond this limit. For most of 
its history this church has received aid, but is now 
coming into a new period of aggressive effectiveness. 
Walnut Creek Church was organized in 1878, and 
changed but little for thirty-five years. Now, owing 
to the construction of the Tunnel Road and the in- 
creased use of the automobile it finds itself a suburb 
of Oakland and Berkeley, and is ministering with a 
new institutional equipment to the needs of the com- 
munity as a whole. 

We come now to consider the beginnings of one 
of the really great churches of Northern California, 
the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, which, 
by reason of its close proximity to the University 
of California and its consequent influence upon the 
higher life of the state, and by reason of its leader- 
ship in the work among the young people in the 
state Christian Endeavor organization and by rea- 
son of its consistent emphasis upon a conservative 
type of theology, is of outstanding importance in 
our history. It was organized on March 31, 1878, 
with fifteen members and two elders. At this time 


176 “THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Berkeley was but a small place, West Berkeley, or 
Ocean Park as it was then called, not being within 
the corporate limits of the University City of that 
day. Thus it is that while Westminster Church, 
Berkeley, was founded earlier than First Church, 
the latter really is entitled to the name it bears, be- 
cause it was the first church of the Presbyterian de- 
nomination to be organized within the limits of the 
contemporary Berkeley. The neighborhood of the 
University at that date was but little more than a 
farming community. The first house which was not 
a ranch house was that built by Dr. Samuel H. Wil- 
ley in 1865, who was then acting president of the 
University. Gradually a town community arose; 
but the earlier churches in the place were country 
churches rather than city churches. A Congrega- 
tional minister, the Rev. S. V. Blakeslee, editor of 
The Pacific, preached the first sermon in Berkeley 
sometime between February, 1871, and February, 
1872; and after some three years of desultory 
preaching, his denomination organized the first 
church there in December, 1874. In February, 1877, 
Bishop Kip, of the Episcopal Church, established 
the “Bishop Berkeley Mission,” out of which was 
organized in June, 1878, St. Marks’ Church. ‘The 
First Presbyterian Church was organized on March 
31, 1878; Trinity Methodist Church on October 28, 
1883; the First Baptist Church in 1889. 

In the first year of the existence of the First 
Presbyterian Church it received from the Board of 
Home Missions $1,000.00. Later it repaid to the 
Board all the money it had earlier received. Its 
earliest ministers were the Reverends L. Y. Hays 


and Williel Thomson, followed by the Reyv- 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH_ 177 


Grcodsm moe oreck.: |) eae ve Dewiswuand 
H. A. Ketchum, D.D. Among the first trustees 
was Professor Joseph Le Conte, who gave much 
of his time to the business of the church. During 
the ministry of Dr. Ketchum a fine building was 
erected at the corner of Allston Way and Ellsworth 
St., just across the road from the campus, and was 
dedicated on May 3, 1896. ‘The Reverends Robert 
F. Coyle, D.D. and Henry C. Minton, D.D., assisted 
in the dedicatory service. ‘This is the building which 
is today occupied by Trinity Methodist Church. 
The congregation was now growing rapidly. In 
1897 Dr. Minton, who was then Professor of Sys- 
tematic Theology in the Seminary, became acting 
pastor. He was also intimately connected with 
the life of the university, and made frequent contri- 
butions to the Philosophical Society. Under his min- 
istry the church drew in largely from the faculty and 
student body of the university; and with the progress 
of the city increased in membership until it num- 
bered about 500. Following the removal of Dr. 
Minton to the east in 1901, the church prospered 
under the care of Dr. Edgar Whitaker Work, who 
two years later removed to New York City. In 
1905 the Rev. Lapsley A. McAfee, D.D., was called 
from Phoenix, Arizona, and entered upon a ministry 
which has been among the most notable of the entire 
church. From a membership of some six hundred 
the congregation has grown under his ministry to a 
membership of some two thousand. 

The story of Dr. McAfee’s entrance upon his 
pastorate is illuminating as showing several of the. 
problems which were present not in this church alone, 
but in many others at the same period. ‘The exist- 


178 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ing church building, which had been the pride of 
the community ten years earlier, had now become 
too narrow for the congregations which thronged 
it on Sunday mornings. Some of the leading mem- 
bers, including several of the men of wealth, and 
most of the Session, had decided that a larger 
church was necessary. Indeed they desired a local 
church which would stand with the most important 
in the nation. Some of the other members were 
opposed to this effort and thought that their build- 
ing which was still new and beautiful would be en- 
tirely adequate for a long time to come. At the 
same time the church was without a minister, and 
the consistory of the church, including the Session 
and trustees, could not go forward with the plan for 
building a new church unless they had a leader in the 
pulpit. It was then that Dr. McAfee, a master of 
administrative detail, entered upon the strenuous 
work of this church, and through many vicissitudes 
euided the people safely through to the completion 
of their new enterprise. ‘The present building was 
occupied in 1907, and at once became the home of 
a warm and enthusiastic congregation. 

Since the beginning of the history of Berkeley 
there has been a twofold quality in the population 
of the community, the university people on the one 
hand and the townspeople on the other, and these 
two have not always understood one another, nor 
admired the same things. Only today the towns- 
people are not ranchers, but San Francisco business 
men, most of whom have never attended a university 
and who commute daily to their work in the metrop- 
olis. Nowhere is suburban life more beautiful and 
attractive than in the hill streets of Berkeley. But 


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PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 179 


the presence of these two decided human types in 
one town has always caused a social problem, and 
sometimes also a church problem. The tendency in 
recent years has been for the churches to become 
more highly specialized, some to minister predomi- 
nantly to the intellectuals of the community, and 
others to the generality of business men. But it 
would be a mistake to think that any single church 
was to be too sharply differentiated in this way. 
There have always been some university professors 
whose intellectual outlook was certainly not re- 
stricted and whose theology was decidedly conserva- 
tive; and there have always been business men whose 
theological liberalism approximated that of the most 
advanced groups of the intellectuals of the univer- 
sity. Sufhice to say that at the close of his energetic 
first year of service Dr. McAfee, who preached a 
conservative evangelical gospel, had completely won 
the following of the mass of the people. At the 
same time some of the liberal people felt that with 
the rapid increase of population in the city it would 
be well to have another church which would repre- 
sent the liberal viewpoint. ‘The result was that the 
city of Berkeley henceforth had two churches close 
to the University, the First Church, now located in 
its vast, new building, which from this time onward 
became the theologically conservative church of the 
city, and St. John’s Church, which hived off from the 
parent organization and became the liberal church. 
With the expansion of the city of Berkeley, both of 
these grew to be great churches. Both are evangeli- 
cal. Both have ministered, each in its own way, to 
the great crowds of students who throng one of 
the largest of the world’s great universities. 


180 THeE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


In 1878 there was founded the Union Street 
Church, in Oakland, which began as a mission of 
First Church in the western part of the city, and was 
organized as a church on April 8, 1878, by the Rev- 
erends); Thomas Praser,4D: Dew james tells De 
and David McClure. ‘The first minister was the 
Rev. John Rea. Under the pastorate of the Rev. 
H. H. Rice, who was installed in 1888, and remained 
for thirteen years, the present church building was 
erected. In 1901, the Rev. Dwight E. Potter, a 
young and energetic minister, with a passion for mis- 
sions and for men, became the pastor. The church 
was located not far from the car shops of the South- 
ern Pacific Railway, and Mr. Potter was fond of 
placarding his neighborhood with signs which read: 


WANTED, 


FivE Hunprep MEN 


to attend Union Street Presbyterian Church on 
Sunday Evening next and hear a sermon on 


THE CARPENTER OF NAZARETH 


The method was a new one then, and the results 
were extraordinary. The five hundred men came, 
and many of them joined the church, which became 
a famous workingmen’s church, with more than 300 
members; and in a short time they raised $1500 a 
year for missions, and had their own missionary in 
Persia. 

Mr. Potter became a secretary of Young People’s 
Work, under the Foreign Board, in 1907, and died, 
brave and faithful as he had lived, in 1908. The 
neighborhood of the church had undergone a change 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH  I8!1 


and become largely foreign. Good men have min- 
istered there but they have been unable to make a 
congregation of the American type. 

In 1881 the Lebanon Church of San Francisco 
was organized in Noe Valley, in the vicinity of Cas- 
tro Heights. Its first minister was the Rev. Joseph 
Hemphill. ‘The present building was erected in 
1888, and has been twice added to and improved. 
The longest pastorate in the history of the church 
was that of the Rev. Richmond Logan. The present 
pastor, the Rev. Kenneth G. Murray, has been ap- 
plying in his church work, with good results, many 
of the lessons which he learned in the Y. M. C. A. 
huts of the Army during the war. 

The Hamilton Square Church was organized in 
1882, in Hamilton Hall, at the corner of Geary and 
Steiner Streets. For several years it was under the 
care of the Home Missions Committee but it did 
not survive. The proceeds of a lot owned by the 
church, and finally sold by the Presbytery, were 
voted to the use of St. John’s Church in April, 
1902. Services had not been held by the church for 
the preceding eight years. 

The Concord Church was organized in 1882 with 
eight members. Lying almost directly east of 
Berkeley on the other side of the hill, it has always 
been one of the strongest of the rural churches of 
the Bay region. ‘Today it has a hundred members 
in a fine organization under the pastorate of the 
Reverend Samuel C. Patterson. Crockett Church 
was organized in 1884 with nine members. Later 
the Valona Church was organized near at hand, and 
these two churches were fused in the Valona Church, 
of Crockett. 


182. THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


The Church of San Leandro was organized in 
February, 1886. For a good many years it was a 
small congregation gathered in a ranching commun- 
ity. Now it finds itself in the suburban life of the 
city of Oakland, with enlarged prospects of growth. 
The Rev. Monroe Drew, its faithful and efficient 
pastor, has ministered here for fifteen years. 

In 1886 was organized the North Temescal 
Church, of Oakland, by the Rev. Thomas Fraser, 
D.D. It has had faithful pastors, including the 
Rev. James Curry, D.D., 1891-1902, under whom 
the present building was erected. Its name was 
afterwards changed to Emmanuel. 

The Valona church was organized in 1887, and 
was known as the Crockett Church in 1908. After 
the organization of the Rodeo Church in 1909, these 
two churches found themselves in increasingly close 
connection, being brought into one pastoral charge 
under the ministry of the Rev. George H. White- 
man. Later the Valona Church was separated from 
Rodeo and finally it was merged in the Valona Fed- 
erated Church. 

In April, 1888, the Centennial Church of Oakland 
was organized and the Rev. Robert Dickson, D.D., 
became its first pastor. The church has had strong 
pastors including the Reverends Campbell Coyle, 
D.D., J. W. Ellis, D.D., R. C. Stone, D.D., and Her- 
bert Hays. Its present pastor is the Reverend E. C. 
Philleo, and although the conditions today are not 
so favorable for rapid growth as they were earlier, 
the church is still holding its own. The Golden Gate 
Church was organized later in the same year. 

The Welsh Church of Oakland was organized on 
March 31, 1889. It has never received aid from 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NortTH 183 


Home Mission funds, but has been supported by a 
loyal and devoted people. With 162 members it is 
stronger today, under the pastorate of the Rev. 
Owen P. Williams, than it has been at any time in 
the past. 

Holly Park Church was organized on September 
14, 1890, in the district of Bernal Heights, south- 
wards from the Mission, in San Francisco. In many 
ways it is one of the undistinguished churches. It 
has had a struggle to keep a pastor, and at intervals 
has been supplied by students from the Seminary. 
But it illustrates in another way the interdependence 
of part on part in the great work of the church as 
a whole, for from the membership of this church 
came the Reverend Alvin E. Magary, D.D., pastor 
of the Woodward Avenue Church of Detroit, and 
one of our foremost American ministers. His story 
is significant in the present history. 

In 1898 the Rev. Charles Gordon Paterson, B.D., 
a recent graduate of the Seminary, entered upon the 
pastorate of Holly Park church. He soon won the 
love of the members of the church and the people of 
the community. Most promising among the young 
people in the Christian Endeavor Society was Alvin 
Magary, who was then a clerk in a small store in 
the Mission. This young man was advised by his 
pastor to enter the Seminary at San Anselmo, which 
he did, graduating with distinction in 1903. His 
subsequent life is matter of public record in many 
ways. He wasa pastor in Troy, New York; Orange, 
New Jersey; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and now he 1s 
one of the outstanding leaders in the great city of 
Detroit. His story shows conclusively that the gifts 
of the churches are no longer wholely one-sided. If 


184 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the east is giving men of conspicuous power to the 
pulpits of the west, the west is also giving some men 
of the highest qualities of mind and heart to the 
work of the church in the east. And the most in- 
significant Home Mission churches are sometimes 
producing and training the leaders for the most re- 
sponsible and difficult positions in the religious life 
of the nation. 

In 1890 the Fruitvale Church was organized, the 
Presbytery thus occupying another position in the 
fine line of churches extending southward from Oak- 
land along the highway. The first pastor was the 
Reverend R. M. Stevenson, and the present pastor 
is the Reverend Pitt M. Walker, under whom the 
fine growth of the past has been maintained and 
enlarged. 

Another church lying in the same direction but 
further south is Haywards, organized in 1891, of 
which the Reverend Josiah Daniel is now the well 
loved pastor. 

A church was organized in San Mateo in 1890, 
and dissolved in 1892, largely because the members 
who had signed the first roll removed to other places. 

The Mizpah Church of San Francisco, organized 
in 1893, did not become extinct. ‘The pastor, the 
Reverend Frederick A. Doane, has spent his entire 
life within a few blocks of the church to which he 
ministers. He, together with the Reverend G. D. B. 
Stewart, entered upon Christian work in a Band of 
Hope organized in the old Howard Church. Out 
of this grew a mission, and in 1889 the mission was 
adopted by the First Presbyterian Church. Then 
the mission was organized into Mizpah Church, and 
throughout its entire history this church has been a 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 185 


center of evangelistic, one might almost say rescue, 
work in one of the neediest sections of San Francisco. 
Its pastor has two passions, saving souls and killing 
the drink trafhc. 

Two other churches filled out the line of the new 
communities stretching southwards from Oakland; 
these were Elmhurst Church, organized in 1893, and 
Newark, organized in 1894. Elmhurst being di- 
rectly on the highway and nearer to the center has 
had the stronger growth. Among its pastors have 
been the Reverends E. E. Clark, J. P. Gerrior and 
Arthur T. Davies, all men of power who have led 
in the enlargement of the work in numbers and spir- 
itual strength. The Newark Church has now the 
ministry of the Reverend Henry J. McCall, who was 
formerly a missionary in Brazil, and in his new field 
finds abundant opportunity to help his Portuguese 
neighbors. 

Knox Church, Berkeley, was organized in 1896 
by the late Reverend H. H. Dobbins, D.D., who 
living in retirement in Berkeley, came down to this 
border land between the cities of Berkeley and Oak- 
land and began work in a hall in the neighborhood. 
Out of these services grew the church and Dr. Dob- 
bins became its first settled pastor. In its early days 
it was known as South Berkeley Church. The Rev. 
R. S. Eastman, then a young man recently out of 
the Seminary, and son of a western manse, followed 
in 1904. In 1907 the present church edifice was 
erected. In 1918 the Rev. James Falconer, D.D., be- 
came pastor. It is significant of the transient char- 
acter of the population of the Bay region that in 
the eight years following the installation of Dr. 
Falconer practically the entire membership of his 


186 Tuer PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


church, which numbers 256, has undergone a change. 

In 1902 there was founded a new church in the 
new town of Richmond. ‘The Santa Fe Railway 
made Point Richmond, a promontory of the bay 
fourteen miles north of the city of Oakland, the 
terminal of the line. Here too the Standard Oil 
Company located its vast refineries. Other indus- 
tries naturally congregated there, thus starting a city 
with a population of several thousand souls, and with 
a vast, incalculable possibility of expansion. 

Mr. John Nicholl, a shrewd man of business and 
a wise rancher, owned the land upon which the city 
grew. He was a pious man who for years had been 
accustomed to travel in his buggy down San Pablo 
Avenue to the Oakland Church for the Sunday 
morning service. He became an elder in the San 
Pablo Church, which was still nominally existing. He 
now donated land on which a church could be built. 
The Reverend Arthur Hicks, D.D., a splendid speci- 
men of the Sunday School Missionary, began by 
organizing a Sunday School in January, 1902, and 
went on to organize a church of fourteen members 
on February 17, 1902. The Reverend James S. 
McDonald, D.D., preached for the congregation in 
its formative period. Several ministers followed 
until the Rev. Henry K. Sanborne, formerly pastor 
of Brooklyn Church, Oakland, assumed the leader- 
ship of Richmond in 1915. From this time onwards 
its growth was steady. In 1924 Mr. Sanborne re- 
tired to become the pastor of the neighboring church 
of Stege, and the Reverend Earl Webster Haney 
was called from San Luis Obispo to be his successor. 
The membership today numbers some four hundred, 
with every prospect of large expansion in the future. 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NortTH 187 


This brings to a close the roster of new churches 
founded in the limits of San Francisco Presbytery 
down to the year 1902. We turn now to Benicia 
Presbytery. 

The Calistoga Church was organized by Dr. 
Thomas Fraser on January 28, 1871, with twenty- 
seven members, largely as the result of the faithful 
labors of the Reverend Charles H. Crawford. It 
has served for fifty-five years the town of Calistoga 
and the beautiful valley stretching northwards to 
Mount St. Helena, with no large growth, or pros- 
pect of much change, but with an abiding faithful- 
ness. ‘The present pastor is the Reverend Ray C. 
Krug and the present membership less than one hun- 
dred. 

Other churches organized in this period are as 
follows: Tomales, in 1871; Kelseyville, in 1872; 
Point Arena, in 1873; Bolinas, Ukiah, St. Helena, 
and Lakeport, all in 1874. These churches cover 
a wide range of territory and indicate the manner 
in which the gaps of population and organization 
were being filled by the activities of the growing 
church. Kelseyville and Lakeport are in Lake 
County, which is still without any rail communica- 
tion with the rest of the world, but is a fine farming 
and dairying county chiefly lying around the shores 
of the beautiful Clear Lake. 

This is the period when the building of manses 
began. In 1871 a manse was built at Santa Rosa, 
which was the first to be erected within the bounds 
of Benicia Presbytery. What an insight this one 
statement affords into the conditions of the life of 
the minister’s family during this period! 

Fulton Church, in a beautiful farming district, 


188 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


was organized in 1876; Duncan’s Mill’s Church was 
organized in 1879, but proved to be temporary. But 
its story has a value. Alexander Duncan was a 
pioneer lumber manufacturer, who built his first mill 
on this coast at the mouth of the Russian River and 
his second three miles inland. The itinerant minister 
was always welcome in his home, which was a beau- 
tiful oasis of culture in the midst of this wilderness, 
and where Mrs. Duncan presided with gracious hos- 
pitality. Mr. Duncan was the mainstay of the 
church in his community; but the lumbering business 
of the early days was a transitory one; the popula- 
tion moved away and the Presbytery dissolved the 
church. Still the handful of people living in the 
place carried on a Sabbath School and an informal 
Sunday evening service of their own. Who can say 
what a blessing some of these mushroom churches 
proved in their brief day? 

Pope Valley Church, remote from the railway, 
was organized in 1882, with ten members, and it 
still has ten, but it has done the work of a church 
through these years. 

Petaluma Church was organized with fifty-one 
members on July 22, 1883. Its first pastor, the 
Reverend W. H. Darden, remained with the church 
for twenty-five years. The city is the center of the 
poultry interest and has large resources, but the town 
contains representatives of almost all denomina- 
tions, which are too many. ‘The present pastor is the 
Reverend Frederick S. Shimian, and his church num- 
bers one hundred members. In 1885 Covelo Church, 
in Round Valley, forty-five miles from the railway at 
Willitts, was organized. ‘“The Round Valley Indian 
Reservation” is the home of about six hundred In- 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH _ 189 


dians. Beside these there are a considerable num- 
ber of white people, formerly drawn from all de- 
nominations, who have happily united in the Presby- 
terian Church. Covelo is the only village in the 
great circular valley, which, with the surrounding 
hills and mountains, is chiefly a grazing ground for 
sheep and cattle. It is in such a community that the 
church finds a unique opportunity, for the entire life 
of the people can here be made to center in the 
church of Christ. Our church, under the ministry 
of the present devoted young minister, the Reverend 
Joshua L. Kent, is endeavoring to minister to the 
entire life of the people. 

Fort Bragg Church, in a lumber town on the coast, 
was organized in 1887. The Grizzly Bluff Church, 
in the fertile Eel River Valley, was organized in 
1888, but is now absorbed in the reorganized Fel 
River Parish, of which the headquarters is Shively. 
Blue Lake Church, nine miles from Arcata in the 
redwood country, was organized in 1888. Several 
other churches were organized about the same time, 
chiefly in lumber districts, but they did not survive 
and their names are not here recorded. 

In 1890 the church in Eureka was organized, late 
in beginning but strong in growth. It has now three 
hundred and fifteen members and is the largest of 
our churches north of Santa Rosa. This church is 
surely destined to large importance in the future. 
Most of its great growth has been made under the 
guidance of the present pastor, the Rev. Robert 
Crichton. 

Crescent City Church was organized in 1892, and 
the Novato Church in 1896. ‘The former of these 
is far beyond Eureka and Arcata, and the latter is 


190 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


on the highway midway between San Rafael and 
Petaluma. Crescent City is still a lumber village 
with a struggling church; Novato is now an impor- 
tant demonstration center for community work in the 
rural church. As such it is worthy of closer de- 
scription. It has a hall where plays, lectures and 
concerts are held, a lounging room with a spacious 
fire place, a library of general literature, basket ball 
court and gymnasium, and clubs for all the varied 
interests of the community. Some of the most 
active promoters of its work are young men with 
Portuguese and Italian names. 

About this period Marin County became increas- 
ingly a home for business men of San Francisco, 
who, with the improved facilities of suburban service 
began by spending their summers in the hills and 
pleasant valleys north of the bay and ended by 
building there their homes for all the year around. 
Where hitherto there had been broad pasture lands, 
now there grew up little towns, with a city-minded 
population. Of such were the churches of Corte Ma- 
dera and San Anselmo, both founded in 1897. But 
most of the religious activity of this region belongs 
to the period subsequent to this. In its inception the 
church in San Anselmo was known as the Seminary 
Church, but as this name tended to create in the 
minds of the people living in the neighborhood the 
idea that it was exclusively intended for Seminary 
service, this title was subsequently changed to the 
First Church of San Anselmo. Throughout most of 
its history this church has been ministered to by 
professors of the Theological Seminary. 

We come now to the churches established within 
the present bounds of Sacramento Presbytery from 





PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH Ig! 


1870 to 1902. Already prior to this period the lines 
of settlement were well determined, and the new ad- 
vance movement consisted in filling up the vacancies 
of the existing organization and occupying the new 
towns as they arose. 

We begin with the city of Sacramento itself, in 
which hitherto there had been only the one Presby- 
terian Church, the Westminster Church. Out of 
the Bethel Mission School conducted by members of 
the Westminster Church, there grew the Fourteenth 
Street Church, afterwards known as the Fremont 
Park Church of Sacramento. The General Assem- 
bly of 1870 issued an appeal to the churches to raise 
a memorial fund as a thanksgiving to God for the 
reunion. Pursuant to this appeal the Westminster 
Church of Sacramento raised money enough to pay 
for the lumber of a building for the new Mission 
and friends volunteered to do the work. It con- 
tinued to be the Bethel Mission until March 26, 
1882, when it was organized as a church. The Rev- 
erend A. H. Croco was the first pastor. ‘The pres- 
ent pastor is the Reverend Robert Burns McAulay, 
under whose ministry the congregation has _ in- 
creased rapidly in strength and resources until today 
it has erected a beautiful new church in one of the 
finest residential districts of the city. 

From Sacramento we will travel eastward and 
northward through the Sacramento Valley, mention- 
ing the new churches in the various communities 
through which we pass. The church at Davisville 
was organized in 1869 with fifteen members and for 
many years was merely a country church, ministering 
to the people who lived in the surrounding ranch 
houses. As such it had a steady and healthy growth; 


192 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


but its importance has become immensely greater 
in recent years owing to the great increase of the 
attendance of students of agriculture at the Farm 
of the University of California. There are now 
some six hundred students pursuing various courses 
in chemistry of the soil, plant zoology, veterinary 
science, and other branches of agriculture. ‘Today 
the Presbyterian Church has the sole responsibility 
for the religious welfare of the members of the Uni- 
versity, and after much delay and strong efforts on 
the part of the pastor, the Reverend Nathan Fiske, 
the church finds itself at length adequately housed 
in a beautiful and well-appointed edifice fitted for 
all the various lines of service which it is called upon 
to render. 

Other churches organized in this period were that 
of Dixon, in 1878; Elk Grove, in 1876; Colusa, in 
1874; Tehama, in 1876; Anderson, in 1884; Grid- 
ley in 1884; Redding, in 1878; Fall River Mills, 
Olinda and Orangevale, in 1895; Corning, in 1900; 
and Red Bank, in 1902. All of these were planted 
in small towns, with a prosperous farming com- 
munity lying immediately around them, and thus 
ministering to both town and country. Most of the 
churches organized in this period have continued to 
live and increase in strength, though there were a 
few that proved to have been started unnecessarily 
or in the wrong location, and which consequently 
did not survive. Dunsmuir, for instance, was a 
promising place for a church, and one was organized 
here in 1889. But the population of a railway town 
forty years ago was largely migratory, and it was too 
far remote to be united with another town in a single 
pastoral charge. The Methodist, Congregational 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NoRTH 193 


and Episcopal churches now adequately serve this 
community; and the former Presbyterian building 
is now owned by the Episcopalians. By the end of 
this period practically the entire Sacramento Valley 
had been claimed for our church. 

The occupation of the San Joaquin Valley during 
this time was even more pregnant with consequences, 
for here several of the strongest churches of the 
state were organized within the twenty years under 
consideration. Let us deal with them in the order 
of their geographical propinquity to the earliest 
church of the Presbytery, that of Stockton, which 
stands at the junction of the two great inland val- 
leys. The church in Tracy was organized in 1877, 
but the town having been made by the railway and — 
having no special reason for subsequent growth, the 
church, like many others of its kind, has not much 
increased in members, though it has steadily gained 
in power of ministry. Modesto Church was organ- 
ized in 1879 with thirteen members. Now it has 
426; and is representative of the finest type of val- 
ley church. Where in the early years of the life of the 
church the land was held in vast, continuous ranches, 
which grew grain, today it is divided into small fruit 
farms which are cultivated intensively and support 
in comfort a population many times greater than 
that of 1870. San Joaquin Valley has become the 
home of a thrifty, wholesome, and, on the whole, 
pious people, who live in beautiful small cities, whose 
homes are sometimes modest, sometimes spacious, 
and always beautiful, whose children are cared for 
and educated. It is such homes that furnish the 
fame of our nation; and it is safe to predict that 
many a strong minister will come from these homes 


194 “THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


to the service of the church in the future. The 
church in Modesto has much in common with the 
other valley churches, something that is distinctive. 
It contains an extensive plant for institutional work, 
and a swimming pool in the basement which is much 
appreciated in the dry, hot, summer season. One 
peculiarity of the history of this church was that 
years ago it received an endowment from a worthy 
lady on the condition that no minister of the church 
should every be installed as pastor. It would be 
so much easier to dismiss an unsuitable man without 
friction. The Reverend Homer K. Pitman, D.D., 
was minister here for fifteen years without being 
installed and when he left to go to the Trinity Par- 
ish of San Francisco, his people protested his re- 
moval. So the bequest did not mean much in the 
way of binding the people. But the principle was 
a bad one and unpresbyterian, and in recent years 
the congregation paid the legacy to the Board of 
Home Missions, which was the secondary legatee, 
and had its present worthy pastor, the Reverend 
Marcus P. McClure, D.D., duly installed. 

Thirty miles south of Modesto is Merced where 
the church was established in 1873, six years prior 
to the date of the Modesto church. Indeed two 
Presbyterian churches were organized in this town, 
one of which belonged to the Cumberland Church, 
as we shall see hereafter, and the present church 
represents the union of these two on October 25, 
1912, together with the great growth in numbers 
and spiritual power which followed this union. To- 
day the membership of the church is 637 and the 
pastor is the Rev. James S. Stubblefield, D.D. ‘This 


sketch would not be complete without a reference to 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH _ 195 


the late Judge John K. Law in whose home the 
church was organized, who was its first ruling elder, 
who was elected Moderator of the Synod of Cali- 
fornia at its meeting in Napa in 1901, the only elder 
ever to be thus honored, and who served his God, his 
church and his community with unswerving fidelity 
until, shortly after the union of the two local 
churches, he entered upon the larger service of the 
life above. 

The Oakdale Church, in the foothill country, not 
so far from the earlier mining scenes, was organized 
in 1883, but generally speaking the foothill churches 
have not had the benefit of the increase of popula- 
tion given to the churches in the open valley. 

In 1890, the Madera Church was organized and 
has grown to splendid strength under the pastorate 
of the Reverend Alfred M. Williams, D.D. Its 
present membership is 250. 

The strongest of all the valley churches is natur- 
ally the First Church of Fresno, which is the metrop- 
olis of the San Joaquin, the center of the raisin 
industry, the point where the two great lines of 
railway, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe, converge 
on the two sides of the city. ‘This church was or- 
ganized by the Reverend James S$. McDonald, D.D., 
Synodical Missionary, on January 20, 1884, and 
grew rapidly in membership. Throughout its entire 
history this church has laid its emphasis upon the 
devotional life, sometimes perhaps tending to check 
the freedom of the expression of the intellectual life 
in religion in the interest of piety. But the church 
has never tended to pietism. It has been well dis- 
posed toward premillennialism, eager in evangelism, 
and enthusiastic in the work of missions. ‘The long- 


196 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


est pastorate in the history of the church was that 
of the Reverend Thomas Boyd, D.D., who served 
here from 1900 to 1914, when he became pastor 
emeritus. He was Moderator of Synod in 1910 
when the Synod met in his own church. The Rey- 
erend Hugh Henry Bell, D.D., a former Moderator 
of the Assembly of the United Presbytreian Church, 
and a former professor in the San Francisco Theo- 
logical Seminary, was pastor from 1919 to 1924, 
during which time the splendid new building enter- 
prise was undertaken. The church decided that in 
building it would first consider the needs of the 
work of religious education and provide ample and 
suitable accommodation for the Sabbath-School, the 
Bible Classes, Christian Endeavor Societies and 
Women’s Societies. Thus a first unit costing some 
$300,000 was erected in 1922, but before the build- 
ing was completed or the bills were fully paid there 
came a terrific slump in the raisin industry which 
brought financial reverse to the whole valley, and 
utter ruin to some ranchers whose land was heavily 
mortgaged. ‘The sudden fall in land values was a 
severe blow not only to the Fresno churches, but also 
to all the other churches of the Presbytery, from 
which they are only now recovering. The educa- 
tional equipment of the First Church is admirable in 
every respect, and the remaining unit of the building 
which is to contain the main place of worship will 
follow in due time. The present pastor of the 
church is the Reverend George H. Gibson, D.D., a 
graduate of London University, fine in his scholar- 
ship, his manhood and his Christianity. 

Founded just two years after the Fresno Church, 
and a few miles to the south of it, is the Fowler 


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YWATMON ‘HOMNHO NVINALATSAad LSuls 





PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 197 


Church. ‘The writer once knew the little town of 
Fowler to be held up in a religious paper as a ter- 
rible example of the over-churched community, be- 
cause it contained only some two thousand of a pop- 
ulation and seven churches. Evidently the author 
of the article did not know that one of those churches 
was made up of negroes and two of them of Arment- 
ans, and that Fowler stood in the midst of one of the 
most fertile and densely populated districts of Cali- 
fornia. ‘The country people come from their beau- 
tiful homes among the vineyards and orchards for 
many miles to the splendid churches of Fowler, all 
of which have good congregations. In respect of 
the beauty of the architecture of the edifice, the 
excellence of the music, and the simplicity and dig- 
nity of the worship, the church in Fowler and the 
churches in many of the neighboring towns have at- 
tained a very high standard. The present pastor of 
Fowler is the Reverend B. J. Reemtsma, -and the 
membership is 368. 

Other churches organized a few years later in the 
same general locality, but nearer to the Sierras, all 
of which have attained to strength and high efficiency 
are, St. James’ Church, Orisi, and Sanger Church, 
both of 1890. Dinuba Church, established in 1894, 
has become one of the strongest in the Presbytery. 
Its pastor is the Reverend Frederick R. Thorne, and 
its present membership is 457. A fine new church 
gives the congregation ample opportunity for all its 
work. 

We close this survey of the churches founded in 
this period in the San Joaquin Valley with the Bak- 
ersfield Church which was first founded in 1874 and 
afterwards died out. For some years it existed only 


198 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


in name, and in 1896 was dropped from the roll 
of the Stockton Presbytery. In 1901 a new church 
was organized under the name of Westminster, 
which later was changed to First. The resources 
of Kern County were now becoming known; first, 
grain; then, alfalfa; then, fruit; and lastly, oil. The 
oilfields have made this county immensely rich. The 
church today has 230 members and the pastor is 
the Rev. Willis E. White. 

It should be noted that here we do not deal with 
the fine group of churches entering the Presbytery 
through the union with the Cumberland Church, 
which will form the subject of a separate chapter. 

We turn now to the churches organized between 
1870 and 1902 within the boundaries of the Pres- 
bytery of San Jose, as it was finally constituted. 

Milpitas was the first church to be organized after 
the date of the reunion. It began with fifteen mem- 
bers and after fifty-five years of existence it is cred- 
ited with thirteen. But it has served a countryside 
for fifty-five years. A church was organized at 
Salinas in 1873, where the United Presbyterians had 
always been much stronger. But it did not survive, 
and the remnant of our membership became merged 
in the United Presbyterian Church. In 1873 the 
Hollister Church was organized, and has made 
steady, quiet progress until today it numbers 150 
members. In 1876 a church was organized at May- 
field, which later was merged in the Palo Alto 
Church. 

One of the strong churches of the Presbytery is 
that of Los Gatos, which was organized in 1881, 
in a beautiful town, nestling at the foot of the Santa 
Cruz mountains, and looking out across the orchards 


—— ee ee, oS a a eam 


PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 199 


of the Santa Clara valley. Under the pastorate of 
the Rev. Henry H. Wintler the church has attained 
a strength of 278 members, and has sent forth an 
offshoot in the Martin Memorial Church. 
Monterey, as we have learned, was the scene of 
one of the earliest ministrations of the Presbyterian 
Church in California. This was when Dr. Willey 
first landed in California and Monterey was the 
capital. But the change of the seat of government 
to a more central location, first in San Jose, and 
later in Sacramento, and the discovery of gold which 
drew from the earliest scenes of American settle- 
ment practically every man who was movable, left 
Monterey without an American population out of 
which a Presbyterian congregation could be formed. 
The current of incoming American life swept past 
this old stronghold of Spanish and Mission author- 
ity; and thus it was not until 1883 that the First 
Church was organized in this town. Of the thir- 
teen persons who formed the original roll one was 
Mr. David Jacks, a Sabbath-School Superintendent 
and Elder, famous in his day, who largely supported 
the church for several years. But dissensions arose 
and a second church was formed in 1892, consisting 
of members who had taken letters from the First 
Church and including Mr. Jacks. Again in 1899 
the two churches were united, and from that time 
onward there has been a steady increase in members 
and spiritual influence. Most of the pastorates have 
been for relatively short periods, none of them ex- 
ceeding five years. Under the Reverend H. A. Fisk 
a modern building was erected, and under the pres- 
ent pastor, the Reverend Edward M. Sharp, the 
balance of the debt was cleared away and the organi- 


200 “Hr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


zation put on a new and more effective basis. In this 
beautiful old city, with its quaint, adobe ruins, its 
memorials of the past occupation of the land by 
the Spanish Government, its beautiful environment 
of land and sea, and the captivating loveliness of its 
blue bay, there is much to attract the modern Ameri- 
can visitor and the sojourner for the winter. The 
church has now a well assured future. 

At the famous seaside resort of Santa Cruz a 
church was organized in 1889, and it has grown to 
be one of the strongest and most effective churches 
of the Presbytery, having a membership of 350. 
The largest growth of its history has taken place 
under the ministry of its present pastor, the Rev- 
erend Warren D. More, D.D., a former moderator 
of the Synod and a leader in many departments of 
the church’s work. 

Within the Santa Cruz mountains the Ben Lo- 
mond church was organized in 1891, and the Felton 
church in 1872. Each of these churches became the 
center of an active missionary service reaching out 
into the surrounding settlements in the mountains. 

In 1891 there was organized the Second Church 
of San Jose. It emerged from the First Church, 
with the blessing of the parent organization which 
realized that with the growth of the city its religious 
needs could be better met by the ministrations of 
two churches wisely located in different neighbor- 
hoods than by one. The Reverend Clement E. Babb, 
D.D., presided at the meeting of organization, and 
105 members were enrolled from the First Church. 
Charter members were afterwards entered until they 
numbered 127. The Reverend Robert F. McLaren, 
D:D, "pastorvor the: Centrale Ghurciworaocuebaue 


HOYWNHO OLTV O1TVd AHL 








PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 201 


Minnesota, accepted a call to the pastorate of the 
new church, and continued with it for eleven years, 
during which time it so increased in strength as al- 
most to equal the old First Church. It has had a 
succession of strong pastors, but the civic conditions 
of recent years have not been so favorable to its 
growth as they were earlier. Its present pastor is 
the Reverend M. M. Kilpatrick, D.D., under whose 
leadership the congregation has decided upon the 
erection of a fine modern building on a new site in 
a good residential district of the city, on the highway 
leading northwards toward San Francisco. 

In 1893 there was organized the church of Palo 
Alto, close to Stanford University. This great uni- 
versity was founded in 1885 by Senator Leland 
Stanford and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, as a 
memorial to their son and only child, Leland Stan- 
ford, Jr., who died in 1884 in his seventeenth year. 
The university opened its doors in 1891 to 559 stu- 
dents, the vanguard of a great army. It was built 
upon Senator Stanford’s former breeding farm, 
which contained some 9000 acres, in the beautiful 
Santa Clara Valley. Almost immediately this uni- 
versity became one of the world’s centers of schol- 
arship, and at its gates there grew up the town of 
Palo Alto, partly made up of tradesmen who waited 
upon the needs of the members of the university, 
partly of families who moved hither that their chil- 
dren might profit by the educational advantages of 
the place, and partly of residents of San Francisco 
who enjoyed the social atmosphere of the town and 
found it agreeable to live there. The last named 
class has been greatly increased in recent years. 

From the outset it was certain that a church 


202 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


planted here would attain great importance. Pres- 
bytery appointed a committee consisting of the Rev- 
erend Doctors John W. Dinsmore, Robert McLaren 
and James M. Newell, and Elders David Jacks and 
D. L. Sloan, to visit the field and recommend a 
course of action. ‘They were met by the interested 
citizens of Palo Alto, among whom was Professor 
James O. Griffin of the university, from the time 
of organization forward, as long as he lived, an 
Elder of the church. The work began modestly. 
A lot was purchased. Services were held in Lyric 
Hall. Two meetings relative to organization fol- 
lowed, the first presided over by Dr. Newell, and 
the second on February 13, 1893, by Dr. Dinsmore. 
The first pastor was the Reverend Walter D. Nicho- 
las, followed in succession by the Reverends J. W. 
Graybill, M.D., Charles Ellis Smith, Walter Hays, 
D.D., and the present pastor, the Reverend George 
H. Whisler. Under the pastorate of Dr. Hays, 
which was the longest in the church’s history, 
the present edifice was erected. Under the present 
pastorate the membership has increased from about 
300 to about 700. ‘Today it is a great and growing 
church minstering sincerely to the spiritual needs of 
one of the most important centers of intellectual cul- 
ture in America. And inasmuch as the constitution 
of Stanford University does not permit the establish- 
ment upon the campus of any organized religious 
work on a denominational basis, the responsibility 
thus rests the more heavily upon the Palo Alto 
Church for meeting the spiritual problems of the 
hundreds of Presbyterian young men and women 
who annually congregate here to study, and who, in 
the efforts to secure a new intellectual orientation, 


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YAISIH AA “EL ADUOADH “AY AH] ‘aq ‘SAVH -WALIVAA ‘ATY AHL 


4 








PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE NorTH 203 


are often in peril of losing the spiritual values of 
church and home and need above all things else some 
kind and competent guidance to a new synthesis of 
science and religion, of mind and heart, of faith and 
knowledge. 

In 1898 the Presbytery organized the church at 
San Martin, which began with eleven members and 
now has forty-three, and is an active flourishing 
church. 

The churches of Nevada Presbytery can best be 
dealt with in a separate chapter, and thus we bring 
to a close our review of the new churches founded 
in the north in this period. 


CHAPTER XI 
THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH, 1875-1902 


ya\e the close of Chapter VIII we left the story of 
Los Angeles Presbytery with the statement 
that at the time of its erection in 1872 there were 
six churches which constituted the original Presby- 
tery, namely, Santa Barbara, San Buena Ventura, 
Calvary in Wilmington, Westminster, Anaheim and 
San Diego. The first Church of Los Angeles and 
the First Church of San Bernardino were both or- 
ganized in 1874. 

We have now reached the period when the re- 
markable development of Los Angeles began. The 
census of 1880 gave the place a population of 
11,000; an estimate of 1885 added 5000. ‘The cen- 
sus of 1890 gave the population as amounting to 
50,395. Today there are about a million people 
within the city limits. And the expansion of the 
church has gone forward pace for pace with the 
erowth of the city. It has been a throbbing, pul- 
sating, exulting expansion, which has been so rapid 
at times as to make it almost impossible for the 
historian to note the precise lines of new develop- 
ment. Nor has the almost unprecedented increase 
of churches, and church memberships, been unat: 
tended with strife. It would be strange if it were 
otherwise. For it would be impossible to put down 
together in one community a considerable number 
of vigorous, aggressive men, each bent on making 

204 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 205 


his own excellent purposes come to pass, without the 
occasional friction of some cross-purpose. ‘The 
wonder is that under the strain of incessant, ener- 
getic action there has not been more conflict. Little 
would be gained today by emphasizing these points 
of disagreement. In some cases such a course might 
only mean the reopening of old sores; and the knowl- 
edge gained would do little to guide toward future 
health. 

We have already witnessed the founding of the 
First Church of Los Angeles, which from the time 
of its reorganization by Dr. Fraser, in 1874, did 
not cease to exist and grow; but during the five years 
which extended to 1879 the work was often discour- 
aging. Then the Reverend J. W. Ellis, D.D. be- 
came pastor and continued until 1885. This was the 
period in which our church in Los Angeles got 
finally upon its feet. A good building was erected 
at Second and Fort Streets (now Broadway) and 
some 350 members were added to the church. The 
service which Dr. Ellis rendered, though somewhat 
discounted at a later period, was then of very real 
value. 

In the fall of 1885 the Reverend W. J. Chiches- 
ter, D.D., was called from Germantown, Pennsy]- 
vania, to succeed Dr. Ellis, and during the three 
years of his pastorate in First Church there were 
received 700 members, of whom one-third were en- 
rolled upon confession of faith. During the year 
1888 the congregation contributed to the Boards of 
the church $9267, and to all objects a total of 
$38,839. And this was the church which fifteen 
years previously could scarcely remain alive! 

But already the central hive was swarming. In 


206 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


1882 the Second Church was organized, about a 
mile due north from the mother church. In 1884 
the Third Church was organized, about a mile due 
west. In 1885 the Boyle Heights Church was or- 
ganized about a mile due east. In 1886 the Grand 
View Church was organized, about two miles south- 
west of the center, and in 1887 the Bethany Church 
was organized about one mile to the west. Then in 
1888 the Reverend Dr. Chichester himself, perceiv- 
ing the inevitable movement of the population of 
the city, left the pastorate of the First Church with 
a colony of 106 of his people and organized the Im- 
manuel Church in a new, rapidly growing district of 
the city, situated about a mile south and west of the 
center. Thus without aid from the Boards of Home 
Missions or Church Erection, there came into being 
that church which was destined to be the largest of 
the Synod. Then, in 1893, was organized Bethesda, 
about a mile south and east of the center, destined 
to be a workingmen’s place of meeting. These 
churches, together with the Chinese, Welsh and 
Spanish churches, made up the list at the time of 
the celebration of twenty-five years of local church 
history in 1894. Every one of these churches, Im- 
manuel alone excepted, had been made possible by 
the aid of the Boards of Home Missions and Church 
Erection. And yet the total sums of outside money 
contributed up to the date mentioned were from 
the Board of Home Missions something less than 
$25,000, and from the Board of Church Erection 
$5450, or a total of less than $30,000 a year. 
And the annual contributions from these churches in 
1894 were more than $35,000. Do Home Missions 
pay? 





Ee REV eVVeml pe COIGHES VERS Dub: 


First Pastor of Immanuel Church, Los Angeles 





THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 207 


With this brief introduction it is now time for 
us to retrace our steps to 1874 and to pass in review 
each of the churches of this great presbytery as they 
came into being. We therefore now revert to the 
First Church of Los Angeles. 

In 1888 the Reverend J. L. Russell became pas- 
tor and after four years was followed by the Reyv- 
erend Burt Estes Howard, under whose leadership 
the church removed to its present location. ‘There 
was a division in the congregation at this time which 
was temporarily painful. The old property at the 
center of the city had been sold for $55,000, and 
a minority of the congregation protested to the 
Presbytery against its removal, with all its financial 
resources, to the new site. At a meeting held on 
May 7, 1895, Presbytery divided the First Church 
into two organizations known respectively as the 
Central and Westminster Churches. Those mem- 
bers who desired to enter into Central Church were 
directed to meet at the Temperance Temple, on 
Way 316; 01805,. at.) 330 4P.M.,) corethe! purpose of 
electing elders and trustees and for completing the 
work of organization. When this meeting was held 
it was found that Central Church had 350 members. 

The branch of the First Church to which Presby- 
tery gave the name of “Westminster,” and over 
which it set the Reverend B. E. Howard as pastor, 
passed through a stormy period of conflict in the 
ecclesiastical and civil courts. The record states that 
it became independent, and hired a hall in which 
to hold services. ‘The last decision of the civil 
courts in the case finally established the authority of 
the Presbytery and its rights over the property. Mr. 
Howard withdrew, with his adherents. Presbytery 


208 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


made an equitable division of the property. The 
members of the church formerly called Westminster 
who remained loyal to Presbytery numbered now 
less than one hundred. But under the Reverend A. 
B. Pritchard, D.D., who now assumed the pastorate 
of the rehabilitated church, and was ever a peace- 
maker, the new organization was drawn together 
and united. It was given the records and the name 
of the original First Church, whose life it thus per- 
petuated. Its new building at the corner of Figu- 
eroa and Iwentieth Streets was for some years the 
finest ecclesiastical edifice of Los Angeles. It has 
had a succession of strong ministers in the persons 
of the Reverend Doctors Aquilla Webb, Frank De- 
Witt Talmage, William Andrew Hunter and Ed- 
ward Campbell. The present pastor, the Reverend 
Hugh K. Walker, D.D., has woven his life into 
the very fabric of the history of Southern Califor- 
nia, having been pastor of Immanuel Church of Los 
Angeles; and after an interval in Atlanta, Georgia, 
of the First Church of Long Beach; and now of the 
First Church of Los Angeles. Under his pastorate 
the splendid old church has come into a new place 
of power, having grown from a membership of two 
hundred to one of more than a thousand. During 
the first year of Dr. Walker’s pastorate a mortgage 
which had burdened the congregation from the time 
of its relocation, was cancelled; and a new, full 
vitality flows through every department of the work. 

We now take up in the order of foundation the 
other churches of the Presbytery, beginning with 
the year 1874. 

The Orange Church was founded in a beautiful 
orange district reaching from the western base of 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 209 


Orange Mountain and sloping downwards to the 
Santa Ana River four miles away. ‘The soil is rich, 
and the water for irrigation is close at hand in the 
high Sierra Madre Mountains. ‘Thus this com- 
munity was a pioneer in the growing of oranges. Its 
people were both intelligent and hard-working. 
Most of them came from the agricultural districts 
of the older states, with the definite intention of 
engaging in agriculture in their new homes. ‘Thus 
the rural districts of Southern California were filled 
with a new population of men and women, who came 
not for gold, but for homes, and who were generally 
godfearing. For part of its early history the church 
was supplied from Anaheim. ‘Then the Reverend 
Alexander Parker, D.D., was for many years its 
able and devoted pastor. ‘Today it numbers 600 
members and under the pastorate of the Reverend 
Earle P. Cochran is strong on every side. 

In the year of 1874 the town of Pasadena was 
founded by twenty-seven settlers, who transformed a 
portion of the sand of the Los Angeles desert into 
one of the most beautiful gardens of the earth. In 
1875 the First Church of Pasadena was organized, 
destined to grow into one of the greatest of Amer- 
ica’s churches. 

The Occident of April 1, 1875, contained this 
very interesting and valuable report of the organi- 
zation of the Pasadena Church. It was written un- 
der date of March 23 by Dr. A. F. White, at that 
time pastor of the First Church of Los Angeles. 


Last Friday, Mrs. General Stoneman of San Gabriel 
Orange Grove Association, called at my study with a sub- 
scription of $385 towards a house of worship, and a petition 
signed by a number of the heads of families in the Associa- 


210 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


tion, asking that I would on the 21st organize them into a 
Presbyterian Church. I consented to do so, and had Rever- 
end Mr. Mosher supply my place in Los Angeles. Reverend 
C. Haley and his sister, from Newark, N. J., Judge 
Thompson, one of the elders of this church, and myself, rode 
out nine miles to the Association on Sabbath morning. We 
found the people assembled at the school house, where the 
services were held, and soon nearly the entire neighborhood 
were present. 

After singing and prayer, Reverend Mr. Haley read the 
forty-second chapter of Isaiah. I occupied about twelve or 
fifteen minutes showing the authority for church organiza- 
tions, the character they should bear, and the spirit in which 
they should be entered upon and sustained. 

Sixteen persons then rose and entered into church fellow- 
ship by assenting to the covenant. ‘The constituting prayer 
was offered and the church declared duly organized accord- 
ing to the rules of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church. 

Mr. W. T. Clapp and Dr. Homer G. Newton were 
elected ruling elders. ‘They are to be ordained on the first 
Sabbath in April. It was decided that the new church should 
be called the “Pasadena Presbyterian Church.” 

Afterwards six other persons who had expected to unite 
came forward and subscribed to the covenant and had their 
names enrolled as members, making the whole number 
twenty-two. 


Steps were taken to increase the church building 


fund. 


The day was in many respects one of the most delightful. 
The country is in its glory, and the ‘Association,’ most gen- 
erally known as the “Indiana Colony,” is situated in one of 
the most lovely parts of California. ‘The people are intelli- 
gent, enterprising and determined to make their homes 
attractive. Houses are being erected, orchards are being 
planted, and every material interest is advancing. A good 
school has been established, and now they have organized a 
church, have a lot given by the colony, and are taking active 
measures to erect a house of worship. 


HOUNHO NVIVALAGSAaAd VNAGVSVd 








THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 211 


All in all, I know of no place more attractive to those 
seeking homes, health, happiness, than the “San Gabriel 
Orange Grove Association!” 


These words were written fifty-two years ago. 

At first the place was called the ‘Indiana Colony,” 
but the name was afterwards changed to Pasadena. 
The Reverend William C. Mosher took charge of 
the new work and within a few weeks completed the 
organization, to which he ministered for the first 
two years of its history. Then he resigned to en- 
gage in a mission to the Spanish people, in which he 
was most effective. 

The two pastorates of greatest extent have been 
that of the Reverend Malcolm J. McLeod, D.D., 
who entered upon his work on November 12, 1900, 
and under whom the church rose to outstanding in- 
fluence and that of the present pastor, the Reverend 
Robert Freeman, D.D., who began his ministry on 
Apriles; 1911. 

The church is great on every side. For the year 
1925-6 it reported 2810 members; congregational 
expenses amounting to $126,365, and benevolences 
amounting to $87,916. But statistics do not tell 
the inner story. It has a congregation composed of 
both rich and poor, learned and unlearned. Its 
church edifice is one of the finest in the United States, 
where architect, artizan and musician have com- 
bined to make possible a service of glorious power 
and beauty. It has a scientifically ordered depart- 
ment of religious education, with provision for the 
instruction of both adults and children. It has a 
parish house which gives a home to the varied activi- 
ties of the social life of the community. Boys’ work 
and girls’ work, aged minister, widow and orphan, 


212 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Spanish, Mexican and Indian, home and foreign 
missions, civic problems and international goodwill, 
all receive their emphasis in due season. And this 
great equipment is the instrument of ministry of a 
staff of some fifteen trained workers, men and 
women. The things of time are brought under the 
light of eternity. 

The Santa Monica Church, which was organized 
on September 28, 1875, was largely the outgrowth 
of the work of one family, who early settled here. 
A writer in The Occident of May 11, 1881, who 
signed himself M. G. S., speaks of “this new wild 
place, which was brought into existence in 1875. 
Among the many who came was a large and inter- 
esting family, of which the mother and daughters 
were members of the Presbyterian Church. ‘The 
young ladies immediately organized a Sabbath 
School. As it was on a desert almost (only tents 
and shacks had been hastily erected), they held their 
Sabbath School upstairs, over a store. Later they 
built a little church, and were ready for the minister 
when he arrived.” The little church experienced 
some «years of ‘struggle. In 1882" the wReverena 
Williel Thomson became pastor. During the sum- 
mer he held evening services on the sea shore, where 
he preached not only to Santa Monica but to some 
from the crowds of people who came out of the 
interior valleys to get the refreshment of the salt 
air. For twenty years the Reverend William H. 
Cornett was the pastor. ‘Today it is a strong, effec- 
tive church of more than six hundred members and 
constantly growing stronger. 

It is interesting to note that even Los Angeles 
Presbytery has had its quota of churches early 





THE REV. ROBERT FREEMAN, D.D. 


Pastor of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church 





THe CHURCH IN THE SOUTH Sin 


organized, and afterwards disbanded. Such was 
Newport which had a lifetime of eight years from 
1878 to 1886, when its members were added to the 
roll of Santa Ana. And there were a score of others. 

Santa Ana Church was organized on November 
26, 1882, with twenty-five members and one elder. 
Today its membership is 1313, and its resources 
commensurate. As it was planted in a community 
which was prosperous from the beginning it is one 
of the few churches of the Synod which have received 
very little, if any, aid from the Board of National 
Missions. Ihe Reverend Joseph A. Stevenson, 
D.D., was pastor of this church for fifteen years 
from 1906 onwards, and it was under his adminis- 
tration that the congregation came to the rank of a 
church of more than a thousand members. 

On July 9, 1882, the Second Church of Los 
Angeles was organized with eight members. It has 
had strong pastors and has served the community 
faithfully and well. But, like several of the churches 
earliest founded in the city, with the passing of time 
it has found itself in a locality which did not make 
a church great in numerical strength. It is rich in 
its faith and its ministry to its community. Its mem- 
bership now is less than three hundred. 

The El Cajon Church, in San Diego County, was 
organized by Dr. Dodge, of San Diego, on May 6, 
1883, with eight members. It is located in a valley 
of raisins and honey, and has been prosperous from 
the beginning. It has now some two hundred mem- 
bers. 

On November 25, 1883, the San Pedro Church was 
organized with seven members and one elder. The 
town, with its harbor, was at that time a separate 


214 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


corporation. ‘Today both are embraced within the 
limits of Los Angeles, and the harbor is one of the 
most important on the Pacific Coast. ‘The church 
had a checkered career for the first fifteen years of 
its existence. For a time it was grouped with Wil- 
mington, one of the old churches. Then in 1886 this 
dual pastorate was undertaken by the Reverend W. 
A. Waddell, afterwards the president of McKenzie 
College, Sao Paulo, Brazil. After six months of ex- 
perience in his work he said to the Presbytery: “San 
Pedro, with its forty-eight saloons, is where you 
ought to push things. Let me give all my time to 
San Pedro. Put another minister into Wilmington, 
with Long Beach as a preaching station. He would 
better live in Long Beach.”’ Six months later, under 
Dr. Waddell, San Pedro became self-supporting. 
From 1887 to 1890 a tremendous boom thrust 
forward all the towns of Southern California. Then 
from the latter date it declined to the crash of 1893. 
Men who had been considered wealthy now knew 
what it was to be hungry. The millionaires for a 
day became near paupers. The Reverend Frederick 
D. Seward, who had been Synodical Missionary in 
that noble succession of which Dr. Fraser was the 
pioneer, now became the pastor of San Pedro Church, 
and declared that he had the hardest Home Mission 
field in Southern California. The people had moved 
away. The new ports of Redondo and Santa 
Monica were competing for the business of San 
Pedro! And besides the Presbyterian there were 
eight other churches in the town. For ten years it 
seemed as though the church was doomed. But it 
survived, and then it grew. ‘The pastorate of the 
Reverend Henry T. Babcock, D.D. gave it a new 


1, 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 215 


consciousness of spiritual power; and today it has 
almost 500 members. 

On May 2, 1883, there was organized by the 
Reverend Thomas Fraser the Pomona Church, with 
fourteen members and three elders, in the midst of 
fields and orchards. ‘The village had only a few hun- 
dred inhabitants at the time of the organization of 
the church, but today it is a beautiful city and the 
seat of one of the strongest colleges of the state. 
The longest pastorates of the church have been those 
of the Reverend Charles D. Williamson, 1900-— 
1906; the Reverend T. T. Creswell, D.D., 1906- 
1914; and the Reverend J. Hudson Ballard, Ph.D., 
1921-1926. ‘The present building was erected in 
the ministry of Dr. Creswell in 1907. Dr. Ballard 
was called from its pulpit to the chair of Religious 
Education in Occidental College. This church has 
now established the tradition of a scholarly ministry. 
The Reverend Jesse H. Baird is the present pastor. 

The Third Church of Los Angeles was organized 
on October 6, 1884, in the building which had al- 
ready been built and was owned by the congregation. 
Services had been held for some months by the 
people who, upon this date, were regularly organized 
as a Presbyterian Church. The Sabbath of its 
organization was a notable one. ‘The Reverend 
James S. McDonald preached the sermon and 
effected the organization, assisted by the Reverend 
W.S. Stevens, the first pastor, the Reverend Edward 
F. Robinson, and the Reverend Charles Bransby, 
who was afterwards for many years professor of 
Spanish in the University of California. There were 
also present the Reverend Albert Williams, D.D., 
founder of Presbyterianism in San Francisco, the 


216 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Reverend C. A. Poage, D.D., Editor of The Occident, 
and the Reverend C. E. Babb, D.D., moderator of 
Synod. ‘The field of this church has been limited by 
reason of the close proximity of other churches, new 
and old, and yet its history has been one of steady, 
substantial growth. Today, under the pastorate of 
the Reverend Herbert H. Fisher, it has upwards of 
400 members. 

We come now to the origin of another of the 
notable churches of the presbytery, the Glendale 
Church, which was organized on September 28, 
1884, with twelve members, and known at first as 
the Riverdale Presbyterian Church. It was the fruit 
of the planting of Dr. John M. Boal, pastor of the 
Second’ Presbyterian” Church) ot) loos) angeles: 
Though the members were few, they were conse- 
crated workers. The Reverend William S. Young, 
whose name now appears for the first time among 
the ministers of Los Angeles, supplied the church for 
a year. For a time this congregation, in partnership 
with the Methodist Brethren, built and occupied a 
house of worship. But this arrangement did not 
long continue to be satisfactory and the congrega- 
tion, though weak in financial resources, met the 
emergency and erected for itself a modest and 
attractive building. From 1890 to 1895 this church 
formed one pastoral charge with Burbank, under the 
ministry of the Reverend Ruel Dodd. The Rev- 
erend S. Lawrence Ward, D.D., was pastor from 
1905 to 1911, during which time the second building 
was erected, this building being now occupied by the 
Broadway M. E. Church, South. In rg11r the Rev- 
erend Walter E. Edmonds, D.D. entered upon a 


ministry in this place which is among the most notable 


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THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH Pu ty, 


in the history of the synod. The membership of 
the church was then 197. In 1926 there was re- 
ported 1776 members, and all departments of the 
work of the church have grown proportionately. 
The present new and beautiful building was dedi- 
cated on December 23, 1923. “Iwo other churches 
have emerged out of its membership, Tropico in 
1904, and Grand View in 1924. 

The Tustin Church, located in the Santa Ana 
Valley, was organized by a committee of Presbytery 
on October, 1884, with twenty-six members, and 
began its career in a well-appointed building of its 
own which was dedicated at the time of organization. 
It is now a prosperous church with some two hun- 
dred members. 

The Boyle Heights Church was organized on May 
3, 1885, Lhe Occident of May 13 contains the fol- 
lowing item regarding this event: 


On the commanding heights overlooking Los Angeles 
from the east Presbyterianism took a strong and permanent 
foothold on Sunday, May 3, by the organization of a church 
of a round score of members. Reverend W. S. Young is 
greatly to be commended for the energy and tact with which 
he has, under the Master, brought about this result. Seven 
were received on profession of faith, one adult and two in- 
fants baptized. Mr. J. G. Bell was elected elder, and he, 
with his family, is destined to be a tower of strength to the 
church. . . . There was a congregation of over fifty, of just 
such devout and intelligent people as make up our best 
Presbyterian churches. 


The congregation grew rapidly. It built its first 
house of worship at once, and used it for the first 
time on September 6, 1885. On the afternoon of 
that day Mr. John Edward Hollenbeck was buried 


218 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


from the church. At the first communion service in 
the new building Mrs. Hollenbeck and her nephew, 
Mr. Alphonzo E. Bell, the son of Mr. Bell who is 
mentioned above, were received into the membership 
of the church. It was Mrs. Hollenbeck who after- 
wards founded the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged, 
of which Dr. Young later became the superintendent; 
and it was Mr. Alphonzo E. Bell who gave to 
Occidental College the magnificent tract of land in 
Beverly Hills, which lifted it into the front rank of 
Presbyterian Colleges. 

To hold the growing congregation a finer and 
larger church was built in 1895, and Dr. Young re- 
tired from the pastorate in 1896. ‘The church is now 
known as that of Hollenbeck Heights. But whereas 
twenty years ago those heights enjoyed a certain 
altitude of vision and retirement, today they are 
close to the center of the bustling life of the busiest 
district of the city, and no longer a place of quiet 
homes. And the church, which at the height of its 
strength had some five hundred members, today has 
less than two hundred. 

A word should be added concerning Dr. Young, 
who came from Oregon to California for reasons of 
health in 1884, and was enrolled in Los Angeles 
Presbytery in April 17, 1885. He has served the 
church in many ways as home missionary, pastor, 
founder of churches, leader in educational work, 
superintendent of a home for the aged, clerk of 
Presbytery, and clerk of Synod. He became clerk of 
Synod in 1892, and has held the office ever since, 
beloved and honored by every one, until the name 
of Dr. Young has become almost a synonym for the 
Synod. 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 219 


The Grandview Church of Los Angeles was organ- 
ized on March 21, 1886, with twenty-seven mem- 
bers. In its early days it received aid from the 
Board, and its growth was fluctuating. Its first build- 
ing was a thank-offering erected by the Reverend 
and Mrs. F. M. Dimmick. In June, 1900, by reason 
of the expansion of the city, its location was changed 
to a new growing district. In 1912 its name was 
changed to that of West Adams, which it now bears. 
For twenty years of the shifting life of the city this 
church was ministered to by one pastor, the Reverend 
William H. Fishburn, D.D., a man with a gifted pen, 
who retired in 1926 to devote himself to literary 
work and was succeeded by the Reverend William 
E Roberts, DD., formerly of Santa Ana. It is’a 
great church, housed in a beautiful, grey stone build- 
ing, where the service is dignified and reverential. 

La Crescenta Church was organized in Decem- 
ber, 1885, with eight members, but its early services 
were intermittent. Due to deaths and removal of 
members no services were had from 1889 to 1896, 
when the congregation began to meet in a little chapel 
on Michigan Avenue. From this time forward its 
history is continuous. The present building was 
erected under the pastorate of the Reverend A. H. 
Kelso in 1921. Under the pastorate of the Reverend 
Clifford F. Jones the church is growing rapidly and 
is now known as La Crescenta Community Presby- 
terian Church. 

Burbank Church was organized on October 23, 
1887, with nine members and one elder. During 
the early years of its existence it was aided by the 
Board and gave comparatively little promise of the 
fine strength to which it subsequently attained. To- 


220 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


day it is in an attractive suburban city of fourteen 
thousand people and has a membership of some five 
hundred under the pastorate of the Reverend 
Thomas FE, Stevenson. 

The First Church of Alhambra was organized 
on July 17, 1887, with nine members. ‘Today, under 
the ministry of the Reverend Samuel J. Kennedy, 
Ph.D., it has grown into a strong church of nearly 
seven hundred. Its history has been one of steady 
progress, greatly accelerated in recent years. ‘he 
original building of the church was repeatedly en- 
larged, the most signal addition being that to house 
the splendid Sunday School in 1911. Ground was 
broken for a new building in a fine location on Sun- 
day, May 30, 1926, Mrs. Margaret B. Anderson, a 
charter member, and Mrs. A. A. Dinsmore, widow 
of the first pastor, breaking the sod. The new build- 
ing will cost about $250,000, the first unit of which, 
the educational, will be finished at about the same 
time as this book appears from the press. 

The First Church of Azuza was organized on 
November 3, 1887, with eleven members and one 
elder. Its history has been one of quiet, steady 
growth, until it numbers 236 members. 

Bethany Church was organized on December 28, 
1887, by the Reverend Doctors W. D. Chichester 
and T. D. Seward, on West Temple Street, with 
thirty-one members, largely by colonization from 
the First Church. Like other churches located at 
this period within one or two miles of the City Hall, 
the growth of the city has taken population away 
from its territory rather than added. Today it has 
something more than two hundred members. 

Calvary Church, of South Pasadena, was organ- 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 221 


ized on October 23, 1887. It was the outgrowth 
of a Sabbath School, held under a broad live oak 
tree, and conducted by a young lady who had been 
frustrated in her desire to work on the foreign mis- 
sion field. The Reverend A. Moss Merwin, for many 
years a devout missionary among the Spanish and 
Mexican people, organized the church in the Sierra 
Madre College building. It began with nine mem- 
bers and one elder, and soon a neat chapel was built. 
But the supply of the pulpit was intermittent during 
the first ten years of the church’s existence and on 
November 23, 1897, the membership of the church 
to the number of twenty-seven was merged in that 
of the Pasadena Church. A desultory service was 
continued in the afternoons and evenings, in charge 
of various members of the Pasadena Church. ‘Then 
in 1902 the church was revived and reorganized. 
Since then its growth has been steady and remark- 
able, until today it has almost 700 members. ‘The 
Reverend Samuel G. Livingstone, D.D., has been 
pastor of the church for nearly ten years, and has led 
his people in their time of greatest advance. 

The church of Fullerton was organized on Febru- 
ary 19, 1888, with eight members. It is located 
amid the Valencia oranges, and in a city of attrac- 
tive homes. For a time it was united with Anaheim 
in one pastoral charge, and for some years it was 
assisted by the Board. ‘Today under the pastoral 
care of the Reverend Graham C. Hunter, D.D., it 
has nearly three hundred members and is growing 
steadily. 

The Graham Memorial Church was organized on 
March 18, 1888, at Coronado, where the skill of 


man has transferred a sandspit into one of the most 


222 ‘THr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


radiant gardens of the state. The present church 
edifice was erected at a cost of some $7000 by Mrs. 
FE. S. Babcock, in memory of her parents. Under 
the present pastor, the Reverend Notley S. Ham- 
mack, the congregation has gone forward and the 
membership is now upwards of 100. 

The El Monte Church was organized on May 27, 
1888, in what The Occident was pleased to call “a 
region that had long borne a hard name.” The Rev- 
erend A. A. Dinsmore, then minister of Alhambra, 
preached here on the Sabbath evenings. The Rev- 
erend Williel Thomson supplied this church for a 
time, as did also the Reverend Robert F. Maclaren, 
D.D., both able men brought hither by reasons of 
ill health. The Reverend Charles A. Clark, D.D., 
is now pastor, and the membership is about 200. 

The Church of Monrovia was also organized on 
May 27, 1888, with twenty-eight members. For 
some years its meeting places were stores and halls. 
The first church building was erected in 1897 and 
dedicated on the first Sabbath of January, 1898. 
The membership then numbered only twenty-three, 
but the building was dedicated free of debt. 
Additions were made as the congregation expanded. 
In the course of time the First Congregational 
Church combined with the Presbyterian. A splendid 
building, in a modified Moorish style of architecture, 
was erected in 1922. The membership of the church 
is now some 800 and its pastor is the Reverend John 
W. Haman, Ph.D. 

On June 24, 1888, the First Church of Long 
Beach was organized with nineteen members. But 
prior to this time there had been desultory services 
held in the community, especially by Reverend W. 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 223 


A. Waddell, who was then in San Pedro. The 
Reverend D. K. Colmeny came from Columbus, 
Ohio, to take the pastoral charge of Wilmington and 
Long Beach. Services were held for a time in the 
Congregational Church. ‘Then a meeting place was 
erected at'125)E) Pirst otreet.)/ he srowthof the 
church was a rapid one. A larger building was 
erected on the southwest corner of Pine Avenue and 
Fourth Street, where the congregation worshipped 
for some years. Until 1897 it received aid from 
the Board. Then in 1907 the present building was 
erected. The church has had a succession of strong 
preachers in its pulpit, including the Reverend Doc- 
tors H. B. Gage, Josiah Sibley, O. H. L. Mason, 
Hugh K. Walker, and the present pastor, George 
M. Rourke. It is today a church of more than 
2000 members, thoroughly equipped for all the parts 
and duties of the church’s work, and, in a community 
which has been visited by many vagaries of religion, 
loyal to the heart to the fundamental truths of our 
Christian faith. 

From the First Church, in 1913, went forth the 
nucleus of the membership of the churches afterward 
organized as Second and Calvary Presbyterian 
Churches of Long Beach. 

We have already referred to the action of the 
Reverend Doctor Chichester in withdrawing from 
the First Church of Los Angeles to establish the 
Immanuel) Church, in, 1883.9; God swith us.) ) It 
was a prophetic name. 

The ministry of Dr. Chichester in the First Church 
had been one of great fruitfulness. The rapid 
growth of the city and the large proportion of sin- 
cere Christians who were among the newcomers con- 


224 “THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


tributed greatly to the prosperity of the church. The 
pastor was a strong preacher and personally most 
winning. As his church became overcrowded he 
made several vain attempts to induce his people to 
colonize and found new churches. They clung to 
their church and to their pastor. It was at this time 
that Dr. Chichester determined to begin a new 
organization. He made no effort to persuade his 
people to go with him. A committee was appointed 
consisting of one member who expected to go and 
one who did not, and to this committee those who 
decided to go gave their names. At the time of the 
organization very few knew how many would 
identify themselves with the new enterprise. It was 
found that 105 were ready to follow the minister 
into the new church, and twenty-five others from 
other churches were also ready to join. So that Im- 
manuel Church began, on September 3, 1888, with 
130 members (another report says 139). The four 
elders elected were Samuel Minor, Lyman Stewart, 
BA. Saxton, and W..S. Elewes, caters upomercs 
adoption of the rotary system by the church, these 
four elders resigned, and nine were elected, which 
however included the original four. The church grew 
rapidly. On its fifteenth anniversary it reported 
1809 members, which made it at that time the 
largest congregation upon the Pacific Coast, a distinc- 
tion which the First Church of Seattle has since 
wrested away. But it is still the largest in the Synod 
of California which contains sixteen churches with 
a membership of above one thousand and the second 
largest in the denomination. The Reverend Hugh 
K. Walker, D.D., followed Dr. Chichester in the 


pastorate in 1897, a man of kindred spirit and power. 


D:D; 
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THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 225 


In 1903 this church, then fifteen years old, was host 
to the General Assembly, and entertained it 
generously. 

In 1916 the Reverend Herbert Booth Smith, 
D.D., was called from Knoxville, Tennessee, to suc- 
ceed Dr. Walker. At the celebration of the tenth 
anniversary of his pastorate it was found that during 
this time 4367 members had been added, of whom 
1096 were by confession and reafhrmation of their 
faith. The present membership is 3472. For the 
past year the finances of the church were as follows: 
Contributed for congregational purposes, $112,919, 
for benevolent causes, $76,387. The church is now 
proposing to build a magnificent new edifice on the 
Wilshire Boulevard to cost about one million dollars. 
It has been mother to the Vermont Avenue, Trinity 
and Wilshire Crest churches. 

The Pacific Beach Church, near San Diego, was 
organized on September 16, 1888, with ten mem- 
bers, in a place which promised to be a college site 
with a large future. These expectations collapsed 
with the bursting of the bubble in 1890, but the 
church has continued to render a fine service to the 
community and has today 56 members, the largest 
number of its history. 

On November 21, 1888, the Welsh church of 
Los Angeles was organized with thirty members, 
which number speedily increased. Now it has 326. 
The growth of all such churches is limited, but their 
value for the emigrant newly arrived from the old 
world cannot be overstated. They have kept many 
a pilgrim on the way to heaven, and given him lodg- 
ing overnight and a saving vision. 


In 1888 the Presbytery of Los Angeles, for the 


226 THr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


only time in its history, went across the border into 
Mexico where “The International Company” had 
purchased 18,000,000 acres of land from the Mexi- 
can government and projected vast improvements. 
It was a famous boom, and, like many another, did 
not last. But while it was in progress the Reverend 
William B. Noble, D.D., then pastor of First 
Church, San Diego, and the Reverend Isaac White, 
the missionary to the new field, organized a church 
at Ensenada, Lower California, with sixteen mem- 
bers, eight of whom joined on profession of faith. 
After faithful, self-sacrificing work on the part of 
Mr. White, he had to retire from the field, which 
was rapidly becoming depleted of American resi- 
dents. 

In 1889 there were organized churches at 
National City, south of San Diego, on March 18, 
and San Fernando, on August 11, and at Del Mar, 
in San Diego County, on October 27. ‘The last 
named died out, the first named was later merged 
in other organizations and the church in San 
Fernando has grown in strength unto this day. 

In 1890 there were organized the Inglewood 
Church on January 19, and the Palms Church on 
December 16. The Inglewood Church, began with 
thirteen members, and now, under the ministry of 
Dr. Edward Campbell, has more than so00. 

The church at Newhall was organized on May 
31, 1891, and through many vicissitudes has lived 
and grown. It now has 83 members. 

The Bethesda Church was organized on March 
26, 1893, with thirty-seven members. It is located 
in a part of the city where it is called upon to min- 
ister to a great multitude of working people, many 








NEW IMMANUEL CHURCH, LOS ANGELES 





THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 227 


of whom have long been alienated from the church, 
holding it to be a capitalistic organization. This 
church constitutes a great opportunity for the Pres- 
bytery and a difficult task, which is being bravely 
faced by the pastor, the Reverend Christopher H. 
Gaskell, who himself has been a member of the 
labor union. 

Lakeside Church was organized in 1893 and an 
attempt was made to do something at Point Loma, 
the home of the theosophists. The latter endeavor 
did not effect anything of permanence. 

We have already dealt with the events which led to 
the organization of the Central Church out of the old 
First Church in 1895, when the majority of the mem- 
bership of the latter decided to sell the property of 
the old church at the corner of Broadway and Second 
Street, and erect a new edifice at the corner of Figu- 
eroa and Twentieth Streets. About forty-five per cent 
of the membership protested this change, and Presby- 
tery in permitting it ordered that the property should 
be divided pro rata between the two new organiza- 
tions which emerged out of the old. The latter ac- 
tion was protested by the Westminster Church to 
the Synod, which reversed the decision of Presby- 
tery. Upon a further appeal to the Assembly the 
action of the Synod was reversed and that of the 
Presbytery was confirmed. The decision of Presby- 
tery and Assembly was then carried through the 
civil courts of California, and the Superior Court 
sustained the action of Assembly. By this final de- 
cision Central Church was awarded the sum of 
$23,000 out of the original property, of which 
$3000 was paid in cash and $20,000 was made a lien 
upon the new edifice of Westminster Church. In 


928 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


consequence of this decision the greater part of the 
membership of Westminster Church withdrew in a 
body and organized a new independent church under 
the leadership of the pastor, the Reverend Burt 
Estes Howard. Presbytery then reorganized West- 
minster Church under the old name of First Church, 
permitting the lien on the property to continue. 

But now the Central Church, not desiring to pro- 
long a controversy which had already resulted in 
much heart-burning, and not wanting to hamper the 
reorganized First Church in its work of reconstruc- 
tion, voluntarily relinquished to the Presbytery of 
Los Angeles its claim against the property of the 
First Church. Central Church had been organized 
on May 16, 1895, and its relinquishment of its claims 
was made on December 12, 1899. The legal 
struggle had lasted more than four years. 

Thus Central Church, which had been organized 
with 361 members, for years conducted its work in 
rented halls, such as Temperance ‘Temple, the hall 
of the Young Men’s Christian Association, the hall 
of the Young Women’s Christian Association. In 
the spring of 1901, with the generous aid of Im- 
manuel Church, but chiefly through their own de- 
voted labors, the property known as the “Grifhth 
Mansion” at 220 South Hill Street, was purchased 
by the trustees of Central Church and altered to 
meet their needs. Here the services of the church 
were held from March, 1903, until April, 1915, 
when the Central Church, now having 305 members, 
was united with Immanuel, the Reverend Augustus 
B. Pritchard, D.D., who had been pastor of Cen- 
tral Church from 1902 onwards, now becoming as- 
sociate pastor of the united church. 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 229 


At the time of this union it was understood that 
Dr. Pritchard, besides having certain duties as a 
Bible teacher in the Immanuel Church, should also 
Organize and assume the pastoral care of a new 
church to be located in one of the newer districts of 
the city. Thus the trustees of Immanuel Church at 
once purchased a lot on the southeast corner of 
Vermont Avenue and Fifty-third Street, where a 
tent was erected and services were begun on April 
oO tom One clopene inn LO eee therem were el. 
rolled 72 charter members in the new organization, 
which was a branch of Immanuel Church. On July 
8, 1920, it was organized with stately services as 
the Vermont Avenue Presbyterian Church, with 246 
members, and Dr. Pritchard as pastor. “The Church 
has now more than 400 members, and is growing 
stondiyim Wr Pritchard) alter splendid’ years of 
service, resigned the pastorate in September, 1926. 

The congregation has worshipped in three build- 
ings, the last of which, the present fine edifice, was 
dedicated on September 21, 1924. 

The Church of the Redeemer was organized on 
October 27, 1896, with thirty-five members. It has 
now 234, and is steadily growing, under the pas- 
torate of the Reverend Howard N. Bunce, Ph.D. 

Knox Church was organized by the Reverend 
William S. Young, D.D., on January 10, 1896, with 
forty members, and was received by Presbytery on 
April 14, 1897. Dr. Young became pastor in 1902, 
and remained until he took charge of the Hollen- 
beck Home. Later he was made pastor emeritus. 
The pastor is now the Reverend William Hiram 
Manshardt, under whom the church has grown to 
a membership of more than five hundred. 


230 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


The Highland Park Church was organized on 
September 4, 1898, with thirty-nine members, in the 
Assembly Room of the Academy building of Occi- 
dental College. For two years prior to this time 
a Sabbath School had been held in private homes in 
the neighborhood. ‘The preaching and pastoral 
work of the first two years was done by the Rever- 
ends H. P. Wilder, D.D., and John A. Gordon, 
D.D., of the college faculty. The Reverend Frank- 
lin P. Berry, D.D., was pastor from 1900 to 1907. 
In his time the church became self-supporting, the 
membership grew to be about five hundred, and a 
good church in a modified Mission style of archi- 
tecture was erected in 1905, Immanuel Church as- 
sisting in the payment of the cost. Dr. W. B. Gantz 
was pastor from 1908 to 1915, when he removed to 
Detroit. Dr. Campbell Coyle was called from 
Pittsburg to be his successor and remained for nine 
years. The church continued to grow strongly 
throughout its history, and the present great and 
beautiful edifice was erected in 1923. The Rever- 
end Arthur Lee Odell, D.D., became pastor in 
1925. ‘The church has now a membership of some 
fourteen hundred. 

Moneta Church was organized on January 15, 
1899, with twenty members. It has now nearly two 
hundred and the pastor is the Reverend Malcolm 
Deerisveitcht 

These are the churches organized in the Los An- 
geles Presbytery down to the year 1902. 

We now turn to the history of the churches in 
the Presbytery of Santa Barbara. In the minutes 
of the Synod of 1896 we read as follows: 


THe CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 231 


The Committee on Bills and Overtures presented the fol- 
lowing report, which was adopted: 

We recommend that the overture of Los Angeles Presby- 
tery asking for the erection of a Presbytery to be known as 
that of Santa Barbara be complied with. It is as follows: 

The Presbytery of Los Angeles respectfully overtures the 
Synod of California to erect a Presbytery to be called the 
Presbytery of Santa Barbara, embracing the counties of 
Santa Barbara and Ventura, now being a part of the Presby- 
tery of Los Angeles, composed of Reverends A. H. Carrier, 
D.D., William Donald, William E. Dodge, William G. 
Mills, William L. Johnston, Conway B. Rogers, James M. 
Smith, Joseph Hemphill, Reuben H. Van Pelt, Andrew D. 
Moore, John R. Vaylor, and W. S. Whiteside with the 
churches of First Santa Barbara, Carpenteria, E] Montecito, 
Santa Buena Ventura, Hueneme, Santa Paula, Saticoy, Fill- 
more, Pleasant Valley, Santa Maria, Ballard, Los Alamos, 
Los Olivos and Santa Ynez on December 1, 1896, at I1 
o'clock, a.m., and that Dr. Carrier preside at the formal 
organization of the Presbytery, or in case of his absence, the 
oldest Minister present. 


We have already dealt with the history of the 
churches of Santa Barbara and Ventura, which were 
earliest to be organized in this Presbytery, and will 
now pass in review the history of the organization of 
the others. 

On May 13, 1875, the church of San Luis Obispo 
was organized by Dr. Fraser, with ten members, in 
the home of Judge Venable, who became the first 
elder. The good judge had settled in the town eight 
years before this time, when it was still wholly Span- 
ish in its population. The chief distinguishing fea- 
ture of the town was its old mission. Around it lay 
a rich countryside. The church has grown and pros- 
pered. Among its ministers have been the Rever- 


ends H. H. Dobbins, J. C. Eastman, D.D., Harry 


232 [Hr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Hillard, Earl W. Haney, and Frederick J. Hart, the 
present pastor. ‘The present artistic structure was 
erected in 1905. ‘Today the membership is about 
four hundred. 

The original church of Carpenteria was organized 
in the summer of 1876 by Dr. Phelps, then pastor 
of Santa Barbara. Its earliest services were held 
out of doors under the spreading branches of a 
live oak, but it soon languished and was dissolved 
on September 30, 1884. On May 23, 1886, a new 
organization was effected by Dr. F. D. Seward, 
which remains. The church has 81 members. 

The Santa Maria Church is the lineal successor 
of one organized in the old Spanish town of Guada- 
lupe, on August 6, 1876. ‘This was a prominent 
point of travel on the highway in early days, but 
with the completion of the railway the town of Santa 
Maria became the important center of trade and 
the church was transferred thither in January, 1882. 
It began with fourteen members and now has 106. 

The Arroyo Grande Church was first organized 
in the summer of 1876, and, on October 3, received 
by the Presbytery of San Jose. This church disap- 
peared in 1889, and the Cumberland church took 
its place. On October 18, 1907, it passed into 
Santa Barbara Presbytery. Under the pastorate of 
Reverend Albert H. Gammons it has a membership 
of 76. 

The Ojai Church was organized in January, 1877, 
with nine mmebers. Later, in November, 1899, a 
neighboring Congregational Church was merged in 
this one, and the place of worship moved nearer to 
the center of population of the beautiful valley in 
which it stands. Under the ministry of the Rever- 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 333 


end John Murdock, it has a membership of one hun- 
dred. 

The Los Alamos Church was organized on March 
24, 1882, and the Ballard Church about the same 
time. Both are in small and isolated communities, 
where a little handful of sincere Christians have had 
to sustain the whole burden of the work. 

Santa Paula Church was organized on May 13, 
1883, when the town had not yet attained the dignity 
of being a terminal on the stage line. The stages 
from San Francisco rushed through the little settle- 
ment to Newhall, thirty-five miles to the south. 
Occasional services had been held in the schoolhouse 
from 1879 onwards by the Reverend Townsend E. 
Taylor, then pastor at Ojai. It was a typical Calli- 
fornia settlement, whose conspicuous features were 
the tavern, the store and the blacksmith shop. Dr. 
Fraser organized the church with twenty charter 
members. It grew rapidly from the beginning and 
on November 25, 1888, the present building, costing 
$13,500, was dedicated It was a great achieve- 
ment at that period. Strong ministers have served 
here, including Drs. A. B. Pritchard, John Steel and 
H. C. Buell. Under the present pastor, the Rever- 
end Allen A. Pratt, who is himself a frustrated mis- 
sionary to China, this church has supported its own 
foreign missionary in that land. ‘The present mem- 
bership is 315. 

Hueneme Church was organized not far from Ox- 
nard on May 24, 1885, with ten members, chiefly 
upon the motion of the Honorable Thomas R. Bard, 
one of the princely elders of the church of that time. 
It has been another small church, operating in a 
small community, with many discouraging circum- 


234 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


stances in its history, but still living and still giving 
life. Templeton Church, organized on May 8, 
1886, a few miles south of Paso Robles, is another 
church of similar character. Santa Ynez, behind 
the coast line range and beyond the Gaviota Pass, 
was also organized in the summer of 1886. 

El Montecito Church was organized on Novem- 
ber 13, 1887, with twenty-four members, by Drs. 
AY Es Carrier and Pea Seward. Practical 
was a colony from the Santa Barbara Church, of 
which Dr. Carrier was then pastor. This church 
is located close to one of the wealthiest communities 
of our country, where are the millionaires who build 
their magnificent mansions, and lay out their magic 
gardens along the lower slopes of the Santa Barbara 
mountains. It is also close to the wretched hovels 
of the Mexican laborers who till the ground in these 
gardens and work in the oilfields in the neighbor- 
hood. ‘Three of its pastors have served for periods 
of ten years or more, the Reverends W. E. Dodge, 
Ira E. Leonard, and A. Grant. Evans, who contin- 
ues here to minister. “he membership is something 
less than one hundred. 

Lompoc Church was an original Cumberland 
Church, organized on January 15, 1888, which was 
received into Santa Barbara Presbytery in conse- 
quence of the union in 1907. It has a strong re- 
ligious life, and under the pastorate of the Reverend 
Francis L. Bennetts has about one hundred mem- 
bers. 

Fillmore Church was organized on July 29, 1888, 
with fourteen members. For many years it made its 
gains very slowly, but in recent years, under the 
leadership of its present pastor, the Reverend 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 235 


George U. Gammon, it has gone rapidly forward, 
until it has now a membership of 280. 

The Oxnard Church was organized on June 29, 
1899, with eight members. After the dissolution of 
the church at Saticoy the church edifice was re- 
moved to Oxnard, the Board of Church Erection 
contributing to the cost of removal. It has grown to 
be a strong, effective church of 134 members, and ts 
growing stronger. The pastor of this church, the 
Reverend William Miedema, gives supply to the 
Hueneme Church. 

The Bethany Church of Summerland, organized 
on July 14, 1901, originated mainly in the endeavors 
of the Reverend A. E. Dodge to introduce some- 
thing of evangelical piety into a community chiefly 
composed of spiritualists. It began with twelve 
members, but it has not grown. ‘Today it reports 
but five. The rise of the great new church of Santa 
Barbara and the easy access afforded by the auto- 
mobile have militated against the growth of all the 
churches within easy reach of the city. 

To these churches we have to add two others 
which were transferred from the Presbytery of San 
Jose by the action of Synod on October 18, 1907, 
Morro, which was organized in April, 1895, with 
six members, and has now fifteen, and Cambria, 
which is the oldest church in San Luis Obispo County, 
having been organized on September 20, 1874, with 
eighteen members, and has now twenty-five. These 
are the churches of Santa Barbara Presbytery. 

We now turn to the consideration of the churches 
of Riverside Presbytery, which though it was consti- 
tuted as a separate ecclesiastical unit only in 1902 


236 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


contains churches which were early organized, and 
thus fall within our present period. 

In a previous chapter we have narrated the cir- 
cumstances under which the San Bernardino Church 
came into existence in 1872. It had a strugele for 
existence in the early days of its history. “The popu- 
lation of the community was strongly Roman Catho- 
lic, and later, when the car shops were located here, 
the attitude of many of the railway employees was 
averse to church membership. Good men served 
here. The Reverend D. McG. Gandier, whose large 
humanity afterwards made him a power in the tem- 
perance work of the State, did much to break down 
the antagonism of the working men. He was fol- 
lowed by the Reverend Alvah G. Fessenden, who 
has been pastor in this church for twenty years and 
seen the membership mount from some two hundred 
to some seven hundred. 

Population was now sweeping down through the 
San Bernardino Pass and taking possession of the 
fertile valley and sunlit hillsides of one of the fair- 
est districts of our state. One strong church after 
another was established in the space of a few years. 

The Colton Church was organized on January 19, 
1877, with nine members, in a community that has 
grown to be a beautiful town. The Reverend James 
Cameron first preached here and the present pastor 
is the Reverend Harry Leeds. The church reports 
288 members. 

The Magnolia Avenue Church of Riverside was 
organized on November 9, 1879, with ten members, 
under the name of Arlington Church. It grew in 
the midst of the orange groves, worshipping at first 
in a hall, and afterwards in a well-appointed church 








FIRST CHURCH, REDLANDS 





FIRST CHURCH, UPLAND 


THe CHURCH IN THE SOUTH rey, 


of its own possession. It has now 162 members. 
Dr. H. B. Gage was pastor for fourteen years, and 
Dr. D. L. Macquarrie has now been pastor for more 
than twenty-five years. 

The Elsinore Church was organized on | March 
14, 1886, by the Reverend James S. McDonald, 
with nine members. It was originally located, not 
in the town, but at the northern end of the lake of 
the same name. In 1887, during the boom, the 
church was moved into the town. From the time 
of the collapse of the boom for a good many years 
it had a struggle for existence. Today it stands a 
church of 143 members in a fair town by a lake, on 
the northeastern slope of the Santa Ana mountains. 

The North Ontario Church, which afterwards 
changed its name to Upland, was organized on Jan- 
uary 2, 1887, with fourteen members. It grew 
rapidly and substantially. ‘Today it has nearly 500 
members and is stronger than at any previous time in 
its history. It is ministered to by the Reverend Rob- 
erisCeeotone 1:1): 

The Church of Redlands was organized on July 
10, 1887, with six members, in a community destined 
to be one of the most prosperous and attractive in 
Southern California. Among its ministers have been 
the Reverend Drs. A. B. Noble, John A. Marquis 
and Nathan D. Hynson. Its present pastor is the 
Reverend Paul Pritchard, son of the manse. The 
church now numbers 548 members. 

Calvary Church, Riverside, was organized on 
June 19, 1887, with twenty-seven members. It has 
had a splendid history of steady, continuous growth 
in numbers and spiritual power. Among its min- 


isters have been the Reverends R. H. Hartley, D.D., 


238 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Alexander Eakin and William Armstrong Hunter, 
D.D. Its present pastor is the Reverend Ira W. 
Barnett, D.D., and the present membership is 774. 

The Westminster Church, of Ontario, was or- 
ganized on April 22, 1895. Though it started 
strongly it lost ground subsequently, and had some 
years of struggle. Then it moved steadily upward. 
Today it has 231 members and its pastor is the 
Reverend Benjamin A. Fye. 

Besides the churches thus far named there are 
others of more recent date, for Presbyterianism has 
been stretching out along the lines of railway to all 
the new settlements that have grown up. Southward 
in the hill country is Hemet; eastward along the 
highway are the well-organized San Gorgonio Fed- 
erated Church at Beaumont, the community church 
at Palm Springs, the church at Coachilla, all grow- 
ing and ministering effectively to their several com- 
munities. The anomaly of the situation is that the 
Los Angeles Presbytery has reached further out be- 
yond the limits of the Riverside Presbytery and 
includes the churches in Brawley, Imperial and El 
Centro. ‘This is due to the fact that San Diego is 
in Los Angeles Presbytery and these communities 
are now directly tributary by both rail and highway 
to San Diego. 

It is also to be noted here that every town of 
any importance in Riverside Presbytery has now a 
Mexican community, which brings a missionary 
problem home to the door of every strong Presby- 
terian church. Of this we will speak again. 

We cannot leave this chapter on the churches of 
the south without some slight notice of a few of 
the notable leaders who have helped to make the 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 239 


church what it is today and to whom only incidental 
reference has been made thus far. There is a peril 
in making mention of notable names, for there have 
been so many brave and devoted servants of our 
church that it is impossible to name them all, and 
it is certain that worthy names will be omitted which 
some readers of this book would desire to have in- 
cluded. 

A man of energetic action was the Reverend Fred- 
erick D. Seward, D.D., who spent thirty-two years 
of his long ministry in the services of the Home Mis- 
sion Board in California, eight of them as Synodical 
Missionary. A strong, kindly administrator, his 
name appears in many connections in the three south- 
ern presbyteries. He was the organizer of thirty- 
seven churches, some of which came to commanding 
strength. 

The Reverend James M. Newell, D.D., was or- 
dained to the ministry in our Synod on October 3, 
1868, and has been a member of it for almost sixty 
years. His first pastorate was in Placerville in the 
days when it was a wealthy mining town only eight 
miles removed from the scene of the discovery of 
gold. He has known almost every phase of the 
life of the ministry in our state. In 1894 he re- 
moved to Los Angeles to the Bethesda Church, thus 
dividing his ministry almost equally between the 
north and the south. Gentle, kindly and courageous, 
he has been a source of strength and comfort to 
multitudes of men and women and brought many 
souls to the knowledge of the Master. 

There are three men who may be mentioned to- 
gether, not because they were alike in personality or 
in theological outlook, but because they were all 


240 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


stalwart men, true to the truth as they saw it, strong 
in their convictions, and influential guides and coun- 
sellors of the younger men who were coming after 
them. ‘They were the Reverend John A. Gordon, 
D.D., who was for a time the Vice President of Occi- 
dental College, and a steadfast conservative theo- 
logian; the Reverend Robert W. Cleland, D.D., who 
served many of the young churches, and continued to 
serve them almost to the very end of his long life, 
beloved by old and young; and the Reverend Thomas 
C. Horton, D.D., who served several of our new 
churches but in later years was identified with the 
Bible Institute of Los Angeles, an uncompromising 
and militant fundamentalist, but having at his heart 
a white heat of passion for the salvation of men. 
Both Dr. Gordon and Dr. Cleland died in 1919. Dr. 
Horton is still with us. 

Representative of another type of the minister 
who has made our church in the state was the Rev- 
erend William Armstrong Hunter, D.D., who for 
some years was pastor of Calvary Church, Riverside. 
He was a liberal and willing to contend for his lib- 
eralism, true to the soul to the truth he knew. For 
years he had to safeguard his physical strength lest 
any undue effort would bring on a hemmorhage of 
the lungs, but measuring out most carefully his vigor 
from day to day he did a man’s full work to the 
last, and left three sons to the ministry to continue 
his own high enterprise. He was moderator of 
Synod in rgrt and died in 1920. 

The Reverend Robert Francis Coyle, DIDs 
LL.D., impressed the life of our Synod at many 
points north and south. He was a great preacher 
and in 1891 became the pastor of the First Church 


THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 241 


of Oakland, where he remained until called to the 
Central Church, of Denver, in 1900. He was mod- 
erator of the General Assembly in 1903. He spent 
the last years of his life in his beloved California 
where he preached to the Westlake Church of Los 
Angeles, from 1914 until his death in 1917. 

But our debt to the fathers cannot be measured. 
From them we have received a great and precious in- 
heritance of faith, understanding and love; and it is 
our part so to use it that it may not be impaired 
through our failure, but rather enriched through our 
experience, and thus transmitted to the generations 
to follow. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE UNION WITH THE CUMBERLAND 
CHURCH 


T is now time to turn our attention once more to 
the Cumberland Church, the beginning of which 
on the Pacific Coast, we have already witnessed. In 
1904 the General Assembly submitted to the presby- 
teries the proposal to unite with the Cumberland 
Church on the following terms: ‘The union shall be 
effected on the doctrinal basis of the Confession of 
Faith of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
states of America, as revised’ in’ 1903;,and oni 
other doctrinal and ecclesiastical standards; and the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments shall be 
acknowledged as the inspired Word of God, the only 
infallible rule of faith and practice. Of the 241 
presbyteries in the church 236, prior to the legal 
date of May 10, 1905, concurred on this basis, thus 
giving more than the requisite two-thirds vote nec- 
essary to effect a union. Assembly authorized its 
committee on Church Cooperation and Union to 
ascertain what steps were necessary to complete such 
a union. A similar committee was appointed by 
the Cumberland Assembly, and both committees 
made identical reports to their respective Assemblies 
in 1906. By adopting this report the Cumberland 
Assembly constitutionally adopted the standards of 
the Presbyterian Church in the United States of 


242 


THE UNION WITH THE CUMBERLAND CHURCH 243 


America, and the names of its Synods and Presby- 
teries were included in the common roll of 1907. 
After the Assembly of this year the fusion was com- 
plete. The Cumberland Synod of the Pacific had 
at that time four presbyteries, known by the names 
of California, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Tulare. 
In these presbyteries in 1900 there were thirty-seven 
ordained ministers, thirty-six churches and 2078 com- 
municant members. It is noteworthy that at this 
date the largest salary paid to any minister in the 
Synod was $800.00, that paid by Hanford to the 
Reverend I. G. Self. Fresno and Merced were not 
far behind. The total amount paid by all the 
churches of the Synods to their pastors was $9608. 
However in the six years preceding the consumma- 
tion of union the progress of the Cumberland 
churches was very marked. New men were sent into 
the western territory, and churches were re-organized 
in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, where hith- 
erto these had been relatively weak. The chief 
strength of the Cumberland Church lay in the San 
Joaquin Valley, or rather in the ground now covered 
by the San Joaquin Presbytery, but there were other 
churches of importance on the California coast. 
The churches which were then received, and which 
have survived, are as follows: In the Benicia Pres- 
bytery, Lower Lake and Middletown; in San Fran- 
cisco Presbytery, Seventh Avenue; in Sacramento 
Presbytery, Winters; in San Joaquin Presbytery, 
Fast Side Stockton, Crow’s Landing, Merced, New- 
man, Bakersfield, Westminster Fresno, Hanford, 
Sanger, Lemoore, Selma and Visalia; in San Jose 
Presbytery, Mountain View; in Santa Barbara Pres- 
bytery, Arroyo Grande, Lompoc; in Los Angeles, 


244 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Westlake. Of the Cumberland churches, the one in 
San Jose and the one in Merced were united with 
other Presbyterian churches. A few of the weaker 
ones, not here mentioned, were absorbed into other 
Protestant organizations. Some have increased with 
the passing of time into real strength, such as Moun- 
tain View, where the Reverend William C. Spaan 
has had a long and fruitful pastorate; Selma, where 
the Reverend John Steele, well known as a leader 
in prison reform, is now pastor; and Hanford, where 
Dr. Reverend Arthur Hicks, D.D., a former moder- 
ator of Synod, is pastor. ‘The two last named have 
memberships approximating four hundred members 
each. 

Just about the time when the agitation for union 
became strong in the Cumberland Church the Rever- 
end William J. Fisher, D.D., was sent by his fellow 
presbyters to San Francisco to seek to establish a 
church of his denomination in this city. When it 
became evident that union was coming he chose the 
location of his church in a new district, in consulta- 
tion with the Home Missions Committee of the Pres- 
byterian Church. When this church was first re- 
ported to the Assembly it had seventeen members. 
Now it has almost three hundred and is growing 
more vigorously than at any previous time. Dr. 
Fisher has been its only pastor. It was in token of 
the completeness of the union that Dr. Fisher, in 
1907, was elected the first moderator of the united 
Synod. 

One very strong church which has emerged from 
this union is Westlake of Los Angeles. It had been 
organized as the First Cumberland Church, with 
twenty-two members, on July 16, 1895. The Rev- 


THE UNION WITH THE CUMBERLAND CHURCH 245 


erends T. A. Cowan, M. C. Johnson, C. S. Tanner 
and William D. Landis were pastors in succession, 
during the pre-union period. On June 5, 1907, in 
anticipation of the coming union, the name of the 
church was changed to Westlake, which it still holds. 
The original building, which was located on Union 
Avenue, near Tenth Street, was sold, and a new one 
erected on the present site, on Grandview Avenue 
near Ninth Street. In the Minutes of Assembly of 
1907 this church reported 156 members. ‘Today it 
has more than a thousand. In another connection 
we refer to the rich ministry exercised here by Dr. 
Robert Coyle, in the evening of his life, during which 
time the congregation became larger than the mem- 
bership. Under the pastorate of the Reverend Gus- 
tav A. Briegleb, D.D., which extended from 1917 
to 1926, the church made its great advances in 
strength of membership and in its contributions to 
the work of the Kingdom of God. 

It is now a long time since it has been possible for 
anyone to distinguish an original Cumberland church 
from one of the other kind. Most of the younger 
members of such a church today know only that they 
are Presbyterians. They have scarcely even heard 
of the Cumberlands. But it is well for us, if we are 
rightly to understand the present, sometimes to think 
about our origins; and those devoted men, with their 
equally devoted wives, who wrought under the pio- 
neer conditions of the usual Cumberland church, for 
salaries averaging about $400.00 a year, who 
preached, and reared families, and feared God, are 
among the finest heroes of the founders of our com- 
monwealth. 


CHAPTER XIII 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 
qe Presbyterian Church has always stood for 


education, from that of the grammar school 
grades through to the highest degrees of the Unt- 
versity. When John Knox established the Presby- 
terian Church in Scotland the school-house commonly 
stood within the same fenced enclosure as the house 
of worship. Wherever Presbyterianism has gone, 
schools have arisen by the provision of the State or 
of the Church itself. Presbyterian families have al- 
ways valued education for their children, so that in 
all parts of the English-speaking world the number 
of young men and women in attendance upon the col- 
leges and universities who come from the homes of 
our church is usually much greater than from other 
religious bodies. Especially has our church always in- 
sisted upon a thorough training for the men entering 
her ministry. It has generally been the policy of Pres- 
byterianism not to establish denominational schools 
when such schools were already furnished by the 
state, or to cause any unnecessary duplication of ef- 
fort, but rather to stimulate the state to provide for 
all its citizens an adequate education, and only to 
supplement this service in fields where it seemed im- 
possible for the state to enter. 
In John Swett’s History of the Public School Sys- 
tem of California he tells us that the first free public 
246 


EDUCATIONAL WorK 247 


school to be organized in the state was in San Fran- 
cisco, when, on April 8, 1850, the Ayuntamiento, or 
City Council, adopted an ordinance which employed 
Mr. J. C. Pelton as a public teacher to open a school 
in the Baptist Church. He also tells us that “in 
April, 1849, the Reverend Albert Williams opened 
a private school of about twenty-five pupils, and con- 
tinued it until the September following.” ‘This is 
not however quite a correct statement of the matter. 
Prior to the discovery of gold the Town Council of 
San Francisco had erected a schoolhouse on the 
Plaza. Some of the citizens in a more or less formal 
way had elected a Board of School Trustees, and the 
School Trustees had appointed a certain Thomas 
Douglass as a schoolmaster. It was indeed a school 
with tuition fees, and was free only to indigent pu- 
pils. But with the discovery of gold the schoolmas- 
ter decamped. So also did a Mormon named Mar- 
ston who kept a small private school. ‘Thus it was 
that the Reverend Albert Williams reopened the 
Public School House under a warrant issued by the 
constituted municipal authorities, the Alcalde and 
Ayuntamiento. That there might not be any mis- 
understanding about it, the District Assembly of San 
Francisco, which in this transitional period prior to 
the convening of the state legislature was a sort of 
rival power to the Alcalde and Ayuntamiento, also 
conferred upon Dr. Williams the freedom of the 
school-house. The school he conducted was the only 
public school in San Francisco and as much of a pub- 
lic school as was possible during the months of his 
disinterested and unselfish service. The warrant for 
the payment of his work was issued by the same 
authorities which have been mentioned above. 


248 ‘THe PrespyTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Prior also to the establishment of Mr. Pelton’s 
School the Reverend Sylvester Woodbridge had 
taught a school in Benicia, and the Reverend Samuel 
H. Willey had founded the first school of Monterey, 
conisisting chiefly of some fifty Spanish children. In- 
deed the earliest schools established after the incor- 
poration of California in United States territory, 
which did not melt away in the gold rush, were those 
conducted by Presbyterian ministers. And almost 
all the pioneer preachers of our Presbytery were 
also teachers. This condition was recognized by the 
school law of the legislature which was passed on 
May 1, 1851, and which contained among its pro- 
visions the following: 


SEC. 10. If a school be formed by the enterprise of a 
religious society, in which all the educational branches of the 
district schools shall be taught, and which, from its private 
and public examination, the committee believe to be well 
conducted, such school shall be allowed a compensation from 
the Public School Fund in proportion to the number of its 
pupils, in the same manner as provided for district schools 
by this act. 


But the Presbyterian Church never availed itself 
to any extent of the privilege thus afforded, because 
it believed that elementary education should be given 
by the state, and was being given as well as was pos- 
sible under the conditions of pioneer life. By 1852 
there were in the state twenty organized public 
schools, having an attendance of 3314 children. 
There were also reported twelve mission and church 
schools in various districts, having an attendance of 
579, and some of these appear to have been Presby- 
terian. 


EDUCATIONAL Work 249 


But the largest influence of the church on educa- 
tion was exerted in other ways, in the formulation 
of educational policy, the insistence on high standards 
and the choice of suitable men for the schoolmaster’s 
ofice. It is significant that when Mr. John Swett, 
whose book has been referred to above and who was 
one of the greatest of the educational pioneers of 
California, first appeared in San Francisco in 1853 
looking for a position as a teacher and feeling him- 
self ‘an unknown atom of humanity in a hustling 
city,” the first man to whom he presented himself 
with a note of introduction was Dr. Willey, and the 
second was the Reverend J. W. Douglas, editor of 
The Pacific. It was Dr. Willey who recommended 
Mr. Swett and secured for him his first position as 
a teacher in the public school of San Francisco. And 
Mr. Frederick Billings, elder of First Church, signed 
Mr. Swett’s first certificate. 

It was in the field of secondary education that the 
church’s most important service was rendered in the 
first twenty-five years of the history of the state. For 
of public high schools there were very few in Cali- 
fornia until well on in the seventies. One was or- 
ganized in San Francisco in 1858, another in Sacra- 
mento in 1860; before the end of 1862 there were 
others in Marysville, Nevada City and Grass Valley. 
One was opened in Oakland in 1869, one in Los 
Angeles in 1871, and soon afterwards others in San 
Jose and Vallejo. And these were about all in exist- 
ence up to the time of the Constitutional Convention 
of October, 1878. While the population consisted 
almost entirely of men who had come to the state 
for the purpose of getting quick riches in the gold 
mines and then returning to their families in the east 


250 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


schools were a matter of indifferent public interest. 
Only when agriculture began to supersede mining was 
there an adequate provision for high schools. ‘Thus 
it came to pass that the church chiefly supplied the 
academies in which the youth was carried on beyond 
the grammar school grades. Some of these institu- 
tions were dignified by the name college, which is for 
us a misnomer, because many of their pupils were of 
grammar school age and grade. 

In San Francisco there were two famous schools, 
the City College, founded on the corner of Stockton 
and Geary streets in 1856, and the University 
Mound College in that section of the city which still 
retains the name. 

Among a pile of old documents the author has 
come upon a paper by the late Reverend William 
Alexander, D.D., which is so characteristic of the 
good doctor and so illuminating that he is inserting 
it here and allowing it to speak for itself. 


The City College originated with Dr. Scott. He wrote 
as early as 1855 or 1856 to the Board of Education, asking 
that a competent teacher be sent out to take charge of the 
work. ‘The Board sent out the Reverend Dr. Burrowes, 
who had been for some time Professor of Latin and Greek 
in Lafayette College, but had left that position on account 
of some trifling difficulty he had with the President of the 
College, and was then giving instruction to some pupils at 
Octavia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Burrowes began the work in 
the basement of the old Calvary Church down on Bush 
Street. The school prospered, and before long Dr. Scott 
selected the 50 vara lot on the corner of Geary and Stockton 
Streets, then a sand hill, and paid down the first thousand 
dollars out of his own pocket, as an inducement and example 
to others. ‘The late Major Coon then took the matter up 
and raised $9000 more, and the building that you (Dr. 
McDonald) will remember having seen there was erected. 


EDUCATIONAL WorK 251 


The college prospered finely for a while, until the Civil War 
came on and Dr. Scott left. Dr. Burrowes stood in with 
Dr. Scott while he was here, but after he left Dr. Burrowes 
went over to the other side, and thereby incurred the dis- 
pleasure of Scott’s friends. Soon he too had to leave. This 
Was a severe setback to the young institution. 

Reverend P. V. Veeder was appointed in Dr. Burrowes 
place. I do not know the date of Veeder’s appointment, but 
I think it was in 1869. In the spring of 1871 he resigned 
to accept a position in Japan. ‘The College did not recover 
its prosperity under Dr. Veeder. In the meantime it had 
gone behind financially, and was in debt about $30,000. It 
was in that condition when I was asked to take charge of it. I 
found there about forty little boys. You can judge of my 
dismay. I thought I was asked to preside over a college. 
My obvious dissatisfaction led to a private interview with 
a Committee of the Board of Trustees. It was agreed be- 
tween us that if I would take those boys and bring them on 
until I had a class ready for College it would give them time 
to pay off the debt, and they would provide additional in- 
struction as fast as it was needed. I did so. In the three 
years I was there, I had a lot of six young fellows ready for 
the Freshman Class in any college, and the Trustees had not 
done a thing, and I had come to believe that they never 
would, and I resigned. Unfortunately that was the be- 
ginning of the end. ‘They put an Englishman in who said 
he could make money out of it. In a year’s time they had 
neither money nor school left. Then they sold the lot and 
moved the building out on Haight Street, and put Dr. 
Matthews in it. But they soon got it in debt again and lost 
the whole thing under foreclosure. The failure was not due 
to the ministers, but to a lot of laymen who had never been 
to college and did not know what a college is, and yet were 
too self-important to take counsel of those who did know. 
And although they were men of wealth and high standing 
in the city, they were not liberal. I saw at once that as 
the High School and Universities were giving instruction 
free, the college would not survive without endowment, and 
tried to impress it on their minds, but without avail. 

This is briefly the story of the College and its failure. It 
by no means follows that it did no good. A large number 


252 [THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


of successful business and professional men in the city and 
in the state got their education in the College. 

The University Mound College, located in South 
San Francisco, had a history nearly parallel to that 
of the City College. The prime movers in this enter- 
prise were Messrs. D. O. Mills, James G. Roberts 
and Governor Haight, the last named of whom pur- 
chased on very favorable terms a tract of twenty- 
five acres, on which was erected a building for a 
boys’ boarding school costing $25,000. Dr. Bur- 
rowes, who after his resignation from the City Col- 
lege had gone east for a rest, now returned to San 
Francisco and assumed the presidency of the new 
enterprise. But this too, like most of the educational 
institutions then inaugurated, came to an untimely 
end because of bad financial administration. Calli- 
fornia generally was infected with the gambling 
spirit. Debt usually caused no worry. In conse- 
quence of the speculative quality in almost all securi- 
ties the banks charged enormous rates of interest 
upon loans. Almost every enterprise was trying to 
build beyond its capital. The consequence was that 
in most of the new institutions of higher learning the 
current expenses soon swallowed up the capital and 
the supposedly vested endowments. The University 
Mound College lost its first building by fire. A larger 
building was deemed necessary, and this, with the 
cost of providing additional teachers, raised the ex- 
penses far above the income. 

Thus in the end both the City College and the 
University Mound College lost all their property. 

During the same period the Cumberland Church 
endeavored to found no less than three educational 
institutions. The Sonoma College was early or- 


EDUCATIONAL WorK 253 


ganized, and in the years 1860-1872 had the advan- 
tage of having as its head one of the most conse- 
crated and able pioneer educators, the Rev. T. M. 
Johnston, D.D. When he entered upon his work in 
the college he found it encumbered with a debt of 
$12,000, which, by indefatigable efforts he cleared 
away. But even the good evangelicals of the Cum- 
berland Church in those pioneering times refused to 
remain united. ‘They established also the Union 
Academy at Alamo, and the San Joaquin College, 
near Stockton, thus dividing the meager support of 
the field and diverting the energies of the workers 
into unseemly wrangling. After a brief career of 
struggle in which they were at times liberally patron- 
ized, and were enabled to accomplish a lasting good 
in the training of human lives which would other- 
wise have been destitute of such training, neverthe- 
less, these several institutions having all lost their 
property by fire within a brief period, and being with- 
out endowment, ceased to exist. 

Dr. David McClure’s Military Academy at Oak- 
land was another famous Presbyterian School. 

Colleges for young ladies were Miss Atkin’s 
School, at Benicia; the Female College of the Pa- 
cific, founded in Oakland in 1863; the Santa Rosa 
Female Seminary, founded in 1868. With all of 
these were associated the names of many well-known 
Presbyterian ministers. Indeed it is doubtful whether 
there was a Presbyterian minister in the entire Synod 
who did not at some time in his career have a direct 
part in the work of education. For instance, the 
Reverend E. B. Walsworth, D.D., pastor of the 
First Church of Oakland, was also President of the 
Female College of the Pacific. Among the courses 


254 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


announced in this school in 1871 are those in Chem- 
istry, Philosophy, Religion, English Literature and 
Composition, French, Spanish and German, Vocal 
Music and Piano, Drawing and Painting. There is 
an interesting statement in the paragraph on Draw- 
ing and Painting. 


The methods (of J. B. Wandesforde, the teacher of art) 
are those employed in the best European schools. ‘The 
object aimed at is not to have the student carry home a pretty 
picture, copied from models without knowledge and conse- 
quently without taste, but to educate her mind to the essen- 
tial principles of art, while training her eye and hand to its 
successful practice. From the commencement of her course 
she will be taught that nature is her guide, and she is re- 
quired to make her studies and sketches directly from nature’s 
forms. 


Evidently there were real educators even in those 
days. 

The name of Miss Martha Chase is one that of- 
ten recurs in this period. For a long time she was 
the head of the Santa Rosa Academy. Later her 
name is associated with the education of girls and 
young women in Vallejo and Placerville. She is 
credited with having had a very large part in the 
formation of the High School system of the state as 
it existed from 1878 onwards. 

With the rise of the new California policy of 
secondary education in the seventies, which grew 
until its lavish expenditures became famous through- 
out the nation, the need of the private schools de- 
clined, and most of them disappeared. But there 
was one school of highest excellence which survived 
and demands from us a more extended treatment. 


It was Mills College. 


EDUCATIONAL Work 255 


The Reverend Cyrus Taggart Mills, D.D., was 
born in Paris, New York, in 1819. He was gradu- 
ated from Williams College and Union Theological 
Seminary. In September, 1848, he married Susan 
L. Tolman, who had been for six years an associate 
of Mary Lyon at Mount Holyoke. Dr. Mills be- 
came a new school minister and missionary. For 
five years he was president of the Ballicotta Seminary 
in Ceylon, where he was engaged in training a native 
Indian ministry. For four years he was President 
of Oahu College near Honolulu. Finally the 
struggle for health drove him to California, where 
in 1865 he purchased Miss Atkins’ School at Benicia 
and conducted it there for seven years. At this time 
the school was chartered as a seminary, and as a 
college in 1885. In 1871 he moved it to its present 
fine location in the Alameda foothills and called it 
Mills College and Seminary. For many years it 
trained many of the daughters of the ministers and 
missionaries of the west. And from its halls there 
have flowed steady streams of light and sweetness 
and gladness to refresh many an isolated frontier 
home on the Pacific Coast. Dr. Mills was a member 
of San Francisco Presbytery and died in 1885. Mrs. 
Mills, as President of the College, continued the 
work throughout her long life, and left an inefface- 
able impress of high-souled womanly Christianity on 
the characters of two generations of the young 
women of California. 

The College, though founded by Presbyterians and 
for most of its history conducted under Presbyterian 
auspices, has never been strictly denominational, and, 
today, under the presidency of Dr. Aurelia H. Rein- 
hardt, it has become decidedly liberal in its theologi- 


256 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


cal outlook; but it still retains the inner leaven, and 
also the sacred memories, of its religious beginnings. 
Today it is wholly a college. The work in secondary 
education, which was the chief part of its earlier 
service, was removed from the curriculum with the 
beginning of the present administration, as something 
no longer needed. It is now the one Women’s Col- 
lege of outstanding academic rank in California. 

We come now to the history of the College of 
California, which was destined to develop into the 
University of California. The Presbyterians were 
indeed the pioneers of the college idea upon the Pa- 
cific Coast. 

In his Illustrated History of the University, Pro- 
fessor William Carey Jones speaks as follows in a 
chapter entitled ‘“The College Precursors of the Uni- 
versity.” : 


The initiative of this college idea came from the Presby- 
terians, and the Presbytery of San Francisco discussed and 
organized plans. It was not however, any narrow denomina- 
tional institution that they desired to found; on the con- 
trary they wished to see arise in California a college, or a 
university, which in its religious aspects should be coextensive 
with Christianity. It was a noble purpose; it was worthy 
of success. 


This idea of founding a College in California was 
entertained as early as the year 1849, when some of 
the pioneer ministers began to plan for such a foun- 
dation. Among these was Dr. Samuel H. Willey, 
who immediately upon his arrival corresponded with 
Dr. W. M. Rogers, an overseer of Harvard Col- 
lege, in regard to the matter and received very help- 
ful suggestions. 

During the first Constitutional Convention in Sep- 


EDUCATIONAL WorK 257 


tember, 1849, he busied himself winning friends for 
the college idea. It was planned to pass a law 
at the first meeting of the Legislature which would 
enable them to secure the necessary Charter. Among 
the members named for the first College Board were 
three Presbyterian Ministers, John W. Douglas, 
Samuel H. Willey, and T. Dwight Hunt. Later the 
name of Frederick Billings, an elder in the First 
Presbyterian Church of San Francisco, appears in 
the list of Trustees. The Legislature was instructed 
to pass the necessary Acts enabling this Board of 
Trustees to hold property for College use. 

The plan thus outlined was brought to the atten- 
tion of the Presbytery of San Francisco which con- 
sisted of the Reverends T. Dwight Hunt, John W. 
Douglas, Samuel H. Willey, and three Congrega- 
tional ministers who acted with them at this time. At 
the meeting of May 15, 1850, the following Minute 
was adopted: 


The members of the Presbytery, deeply impressed with 
the need of common schools and higher institutions of learn- 
ing being early established among us, for the purpose of culti- 
vating the intellect and developing the genius, as well as 
securing the moral worth of the community, look with 
particular favor upon every effort made to advance the 
interest of schools and will, as individuals, heartily cooperate 
with such as may undertake to found a college or university 
on broad and liberal principles, and would earnestly recom- 
mend any such enterprise to the favor and support of their 
fellow citizens. 


Soon after this the Legislature enacted a law pro- 
viding for College Charters. Frederick Billings then 
applied to the Supreme Court for a Charter for the 
College. This was not granted owing to the fact that 
“the majority of the judges chose to give so strict 


258 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


a construction to the requirements of the statute, as 
to the property, that they could not be complied 
with. -* 

For about two years after this rebuff the only 
records are those of resolutions about the university, 
which itself still slumbered in futurity. Then ap- 
peared another college enthusiast, the Reverend 
Henry Durant, who said of himself that he arrived 
in San Francisco ‘‘with college on the brain and with 
the purpose of founding a university fully formed in 
his mind.” He became one of the first professors. 
And of the Reverend J. A. Douglas, the travelling 
companion of Dr. Willey and soon the editor of The 
Pacific, the latter said, ‘‘I think he has no plan of 
settling down any where or of engaging in any thing 
permanently for years to come. His idea seems to 
be to travel hither and thither, preach, form ac- 
quaintances, talk of his plan, and when there is 
formed such a thing as a Board of Trustees for a 
California University to become a regent.”’ 

Meanwhile the friends of the college turned their 
thoughts toward the establishment of a preparatory 
school, and in this the New School Presbyterians 
sought and obtained the cooperation of the Congre- 
gationalists. A joint meeting of the Presbytery of 
San Francisco (N. S$.) and the Congregational As- 
sociation of California was held in Nevada City, in 
May, 1853, Mr. Durant being present. All the mem- 
bers of both bodies were young men and aglow with 
the optimism of youth. Dr. Willey thought that the 
stimulus of the mountain air inspired them, and made 
the most difficult work seem quite possible. At any 
rate a committee was appointed consisting of the 


1 Willey. History of the College of California, p. 6. 


EDUCATIONAL WorK 259 


Reverends S. H. Willey, S. B. Bell, T. D. Hunt, 
all Presbyterians, and J. A. Benton, Congregational- 
ist, to act with Mr. Durant, a Presbyterian, in or- 
ganizing a school which would become preparatory 
to the university. 

With some difficulty a house was rented, as a 
temporary location, at the corner of Broadway and 
Fifth Street, Oakland, where Mr. Durant began his 
school with three pupils, which number increased 
later. Then land, surveyed out of a tract as yet 
unbroken was secured for a permanent location. 
When laid out it proved to be the four blocks 
bounded by Twelfth, Franklin, Fourteenth and Har- 
rison Streets. Upon this land a school building was 
erected. In the comparatively unsettled condition of 
the life of the period Mr. Durant had to defend, at 
his personal peril, the possession of the new property 
of the school against “jumpers.”’ ‘Iwo years later 
the College of California was incorporated, as fol- 
lows: 

We, the State Board of Education of the State of Cali- 
fornia, in accordance with the provisions of an act to pro- 
vide for the incorporation of colleges, passed April 13, 1855, 
do hereby incorporate the College of California situated in 
the city of Oakland, County of Alameda, of this State, of 
which college the following named persons are the Trustees, 
to wit: Frederick Billings, Sherman Day, Samuel H. Willey, 
T. Dwight Hunt, Mark Brummagim, Edward B. Wals- 
worth, Joseph A. Benton, Edward McLean, Henry Durant, 
Beane W. Page, Robert Simson, A. H. Wilder, Samuel 

. Bell. 


Signed by John Bigler, Governor; S. H. Marlette, 
Surveyor General; Paul K. Hubbs, Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. Dated, Sacramento, April 13, 
1855. Thus came into existence the college out of 


260 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


which emerged the University of California. ‘The 
writer cannot now identify the ecclesiastical connec- 
tions of all the twelve members of this Board, but a 
majority of them were Presbyterian ministers or 
elders. 

In 1860 the Rey. Isaac Brayton, who had earlier 
been the assistant of Mr. Durant, became the presi- 
dent of the Academy. 

In the meanwhile Mr. Durant, who had early seen 
that if the college were to attain to its largest use- 
fulness a new and ampler site would be needed, had 
selected a tract of 160 acres in what is now Berke- 
ley. The selection of this location was made after 
no less an educational authority than Horace Bush- 
nell had spent the greater part of the winter of 
1856-7 in investigating on horseback the various 
available sites for a university in northern Califor- 
nia and had wavered in his choice between Napa and 
East Oakland, setting aside Berkeley as being de- 
ficient in water. ‘The Board of ‘Trustees took formal 
action upon the acquisition of the new site at a meet- 
ing held on April 16, 1860, on the Berkeley grounds. 
Dr. W. C. Anderson, pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church of San Francisco, was then the Presi- 
dent of the Board, and Dr. Willey was Secretary. 
Dr. Anderson, we are told, stood on ‘Founder 
Rock” and prayed that God would bless the effort 
then inaugurated, and that the new college might be 
accepted of Him and remain a seat of Christian 
learning, a blessing to the youth of the state and a 
center of usefulness in all this part of the world. It 
remained for Mr. Frederick Billings to suggest the 
name of Berkeley for the University town. While 
the college remained in Oakland the commencement 


EDUCATIONAL WorkK 261 


exercises and anniversary gatherings were regularly 
held in the First Presbyterian Church. It is however 
to be noted that not all the San Francisco Presby- 
terian ministers were yet committed to the idea of the 
college on the east side of the Bay. Some of the 
Old School men, and especially those whose interest 
centered in Calvary Church and who were promoters 
of the City College, looked upon the Oakland Col- 
lege as a rival, with a possible rationalizing trend. 
Dr. Scott was elected a director, but declined. Dr. 
Burrowes was determined to build up an institution 
wholly Presbyterian. Only with the failure of all 
the small colleges did the University receive the un- 
divided support of the Presbyterians. 

It was a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Sam- 
ucl B. Bell, at that time representing Alameda and 
Santa Clara counties in the Senate of the state, who 
in 1858 introduced a bill “for organizing the Uni- 
versity of the State of California.” The bill did not 
carry through at that time, but the debate upon it 
cleared the air of misunderstandings and prepared 
the minds of the people for subsequent action. 

In 1862 Dr. Willey was elected the Vice-President 
of the College, which was then its chief executive 
office, the Presidency being left open for the present 
in the hope of filling it ultimately with an educator of 
the highest rank. This office Dr. Willey continued 
to hold for six years, the entire period of the life of 
the College before it merged its identity in the Uni- 
versity of California. With the passing of these 
years it became increasingly evident that in spite of 
the fine success the college had already achieved, if it 
were to do its full service for the people of the state 
it must have buildings and faculty and resources far 


262 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


beyond the possibilities of private provision at that 
time. The State Legislature was willing to provide a 
college of Agriculture, Mining and Mechanical Arts, 
and in 1866 passed an act so doing. But Governor 
Low, with a breadth of wisdom unusual in the legis- 
lator of the day, perceived the peril to the state in 
expending all its funds available for higher education 
on purely technical schools, and in his gubernatorial 
address of December 2, 1867, urged the wisdom of 
a more liberal policy. The governor’s message and 
the financial difficulties of the College of California 
synchronized. At a meeting of the Board of Trus- 
tees of the college, held on October 9, 1867, it was 
resolved that all the lands and buildings of the col- 
lege be offered as a gift to the state on the sole 
condition that the state maintain permanently in its 
proposed university a college of letters. However, 
it would be a mistake to think that financial pressure 
alone inspired this offer of the college authorities to 
the state. It was indeed a public-spirited, high-souled 
endeavor to save the state from an exclusive interest 
in the money-making branches of education, to main- 
tain the dignity of classical studies, to fuifill upon the 
coast the ideals of Henry Durant and Samuel Willey 
of a college that would be Christian in a more funda- 
mental sense than were the sectarian institutions of 
learning, that would be religious in spirit and tem- 
per, though not in a denominational way. Governor 
Haight, in his inaugural address, recommended the 
passing of a law to establish such a University; a 
committee was appointed under the chairmanship of 
the Reverend James Eells, D.D., to draft a bill to 
be presented to the legislature; this bill was enacted 
into law on March 21, 1868, and on March 23 it 


EDUCATIONAL WoRK 263 


received the governor’s signature. The College of 
California had now become the University of Cali- 
fornia, located in Berkeley. We name only three of 
the teachers of the college who passed over into the 
university faculty: Henry Durant became its first 
president; John LeConte became professor of 
physics, and later president; Martin Kellogg became 
chairman of faculty and later president. All three 
of these had been ordained to the Christian ministry ; 
Henry Durant in the Congregational Church, after- 
ward becoming an elder in the First Presbyterian 
Church of Oakland; John LeConte, in the Presby- 
terian Church; and Martin Kellogg in the Congre- 
gational Church. ‘Throughout the history of the 
University none of its professors have rendered 
nobler service than did these. 

Before we leave the University of California it 
may be permissible to skip over the intervening years 
to a date near our own time. ‘The university as a 
whole has maintained an attitude favorable to re- 
ligion, but some of its professors have not. ‘They 
have sometimes been supercilious toward the min- 
isters as unintellectual. Sometimes they have rudely 
and unnecessarily disturbed the faith of young men 
and women who have come from pious homes. Some 
professors have gloried in iconoclasm. ‘The church 
has been forced to recognize that it has a special duty 
to perform towards the students who come from its 
homes, and, since 1911, has maintained in Berkeley 
a university pastor, who, since 1912, has lived in a 
house known as the ‘Westminster House,” which 
has been the property of Synod’s committee on Chris- 
tian Education. ‘These pastors have been the Rever- 


end Arthur Hicks, D.D., who secured the first build- 


264 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ing at 2700 Bancroft Way, in which to receive the 
students; the Reverend Lewis B. Hillis, D.D., who 
built up the work to its present influential position; 
and the Reverend William P. Chamberlain, who min- 
istered here for two years, 1924-26, when he with- 
drew to join the faculty of Trinity University, 
Texas. Dr. Hillis has now returned to an enlarged 
work in Berkeley. A new building is to be erected, 
at a cost of $50,000, of which amount $20,000 is 
a gift derived from the estate of General and Mrs. 
Bidwell. Of the 10,000 students registered in the 
State University a larger number have expressed 
their preference for the Presbyterian church than for 
any other. 

We come now to the history of the Occidental Col- 
lege, of Los Angeles, which began as a wholly Pres- 
byterian College, and while it has today received a 
broader evangelical foundation, still remains essen- 
tially Presbyterian. It is noteworthy that while in 
northern California the development of higher edu- 
cation has been chiefly along the lines of state and 
non-sectarian organization, in southern California 
every foundation has been laid upon denominational 
lines, and only recently, with the rise of the southern 
branch of the University of California, has the secu- 
larized institution made its appearance. Doubtless 
this is largely due to the fact that the state institu- 
tion began in the north, and for a long time pur- 
ported to serve both north and south. No institu- 
tion of learning in the southern part of the state has 
had a worthier history than Occidental College. 

In the winter of 1885-6 there met a little group 
of earnest men in the First Presbyterian Church of 
Los Angeles, to consider the establishing of an in- 


AOUTIOO IVLINACIOVO 





=T) 


— 


<1) 





EDUCATIONAL Work 265 


stitution of higher learning under Presbyterian con- 
trol. Those attending the preliminary conferences 
were the Reverends W. G. Chichester, W. C. 
Stevens, W. S. Young, I. M. Condit, and J. M. Boal, 
and the sessions of the churches then existing in Los 
Angeles. The result of these meetings, held under 
the leadership of Dr. Young, was embodied in a reso- 
lution adopted on February 15, 1886, to the effect: 


That it is the sense of this meeting that steps should be 
taken at once looking toward the establishment of a Presby- 
terian institution of learning in the city. 


Later “The Presbyterian Ministerial Union,”’ su- 
perseding the former informal association, requested 
the Reverend Samuel H. Weller, D.D., who subse- 
quently became the first President of the college, to 
outline a plan for its organization. On February 25, 
1887, a company of fifteen men agreed upon the 
articles of incorporation, having already received a 
gift of fifty-seven acres of land extending out on 
Boyle Heights, just east of the eastern boundary of 
the city, and subsequently known as Occidental 
Heights. The Secretary of State put his seal to the 
articles of incorporation of “The Occidental Uni- 
versity of Los Angeles” on April 20, 1887. 

The cornerstone of the first building was laid on 
September 20, 1887, with an address by the Rev- 
erend J. Rice Bowman, D.D., then pastor of the 
First Church of Pomona. The institution opened its 
doors to students on September 11, 1888. McPher- 
ron Academy was absorbed into the new institution 
which thus became both an academy and a college. 
The first oficers of the Board of Trustees were as 
follows: President, Reverend S. H. Weller, D.D.; 


266 Tuer PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Vice President, Reverend W. J. Chichester, D.D.; 
Secretary, Reverend W. S. Young, and Treasurer, 
Reverend J. M. Boal. Through all the changes of 
scene and circumstance Dr. Young has remained the 
secretary of the Board from the beginning until now. 
He embodies much of the wisdom of Southern Cali- 
fornia. By the original incorporation at least twelve 
of the fifteen Trustees had to be members of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of Amer- 
ica, and the power to nominate these Trustees was 
placed by the By-Laws in the hands of the Presbytery 
of Los Angeles. On April 25, 1892, the name of 
the institution was changed to “The Occidental Col- 
lege of Los Angeles,” and other changes were made 
in the charter. In 1893 the first degrees were con- 
ferred. 

After the first building was destroyed by fire on 
January 13, 1896, it was thought best to re-locate 
the institution, and on January 3, 1898, the corner- 
stone of another building was laid at Highland Park. 
Occidental College has now held three locations, and 
each change has been an improvement upon the pre- 
ceding. During the period of re-location on the 
Highland Park site the Reverend Guy W. Wads- 
worth, D.D., was president. 

In 1906 Dr. John Willis Baer became president 
and continued in office for ten years. Under his 
energetic administration a new charter was obtained 
according to which Presbyterian control ceased, 
though the conditions of membership in the Board 
insured a continuance of evangelical influence; after 
two years of notice the academy was discontinued in 
1912; the Graduate Council of the Alumni Associa- 
tion was organized and the college was again re- 


EDUCATIONAL WorRK 267 


located, this time on the present splendid campus 
of eighty-six acres in Eagle Rock. From this date 
onward the development has been rapid. Largely in 
recognition of his eminent services to education Dr. 
Baer, elder as he was, was elected Moderator of the 
General Assembly in 1919. 

The Reverend Silas Evans, D.D., LL.D., who 
held the presidency from 1917 to 1920, won many 
friends for the college by his distinguished service as 
a teacher of the Bible, before Synods and Summer 
Conferences. 

The Reverend Remsen du Bois Bird, D.D., was 
professor of Church History in San _ Francisco 
Theological Seminary when, in 1921, he was called 
to the presidency of Occidental. His administration 
has been the most prosperous of the entire history 
of the College. With the support of his Board of 
Trustees in 1924 he undertook a campaign to add 
half a million dollars to the endowment, but before 
this year had run its course the expectations of the 
college were far surpassed by the gift of Mr. 
Alphonso Bell, of the Class of ’95, and his associates, 
of a great tract of land near the Beverly Hills for 
the site of a new college for men, the Eagle Rock 
location to be permanently devoted to the work of 
an exclusive women’s college. Even since this land 
was given its value has been greatly enhanced by the 
general increase of values in this part of Los 
Angeles. It is said that today Occidental College 
possesses larger financial resources than any other 
college reporting to the Presbyterian Board. In five 
years’ time its annual budget has increased from 
some $60,000 to $300,000. Thus ultimately Occi- 
dental will contain two colleges, one for men on a 


268 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


new campus at Beverly Hills and one for women at 
Eagle Rock. 

The Board, as it is now organized, consists of thirty 
members, who must be citizens of the United States 
and members of an evangelical church; and of whom 
a majority must be residents of California. 

The college is still evangelical, though not nar- 
rowly denominational; still loyal to the spirit and 
teaching of Christ. It aims at training the whole 
man, intellect and soul, and sending him forth com- 
plete to serve his fellowman. Fine as has been its 
achievement in the past, it would now seem to be 
coming into a new era of vastly greater effectiveness. 


CHAPTER XIV 


SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY 


pies history of the seminary divides itself 
naturally into three periods; the first extending 
from the date of the adoption by the Synod of the 
Pacific, in 1871, of a plan for the foundation of a 
seminary, down to the end of 1880, during which 
time all the professors were busy pastors, carrying 
on the work of heavy parishes and giving of their 
time gratuitously to the needs of the newly founded 
school of the prophets; the second period extending 
from the receipt of the first endowment, that of the 
Stuart Chair, down to the opening of the present 
seminary buildings in San Anselmo, in 1892; the 
third period extending from the last named date to 
the present. Each of these periods has its own tale 
of vicissitudes and hardships, of hopes raised only 
to be dashed again, of other hopes brought to a 
glorious fruition, of steady patience in defeat, and 
of courage that finally triumphed over all difficulties. 
We will pass in review the chief events and person- 
ages in each of these three periods, dwelling at 
greatest length upon the earliest. 

It was on October 3, 1871, that the Synod of the 
Pacific, of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States, holding its session in the First Presbyterian 

269 


270 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Church of Oakland, received the following memorial 
signed by several of its members: 


Fathers and Brethren: Inasmuch as the Lord has called 
us to the office and work of the Ministry, and committed to 
our charge important trusts touching the interests of His 
Kingdom on this coast; and as nothing can have a more 
direct bearing on the interests of that Kingdom than the 
raising up of a qualified ministry; and as, in the providence 
of God, the time seems to have come for entering on that 
great work, your memorialists, under a deep sense of their 
own insufficiency, and with entire confidence in the wisdom 
of the Synod under the good hand of God upon us, would 
respectfully ask the Synod to appoint a committee, at as 
early a period as possible, to consider and report to the Synod, 
during its present session, a plan for the organization of a 
Theological Seminary, such as the present wants and future 
interests of this coast demand. And your memorialists, as 
in duty bound, will ever pray. 


This memorial was signed by the following min- 
isters: W. Alexander, T. M. Cunningham, W. A. 
Scott, H. P. Coon, A. Hemme, $. Woodbridge, Geo. 
Burrowes. 

It came as the climax of some years of informal 
discussion, desultory in the early stages, but gradually 
shaped into more definite purpose during the weeks 
that preceded the meeting of Synod. If we would 
rightly grasp the significance of this resolution we 
would have to go back to the beginnings of the 
Presbyterian Church in northern California. It is 
said that when Dr. Scott, in 1854, first sailed in at 
the Golden Gate, and looked at the heights of land 
which rose around him, he resolved within himself 
that some day he would see a school for the training 
of a coast ministry planted somewhere upon those 
heights. Amid the thronging duties of his unique 


AUVNIWAS IVOIDOTOUHL OOSIONVUA NVS 








A | 


ay? 
a 





SAN FRANCIscO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 271 


position as the pastor of a great city church which 
was located in a new, western community, he still held 
steadily to his original aim, and from time to time 
brought it to the attention of his brethren in the 
church. During the period of reconstruction that 
came after the Civil War he found an associate of 
kindred aspiration in the Reverend William 
Alexander, D.D., who, in 1869, after a large ex- 
perience in educational work in Wisconsin, had come 
to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of 
San Jose. Other ministers of the church shared their 
view. Thus in 1869 there was held in San Jose a 
called meeting of the Synod to discuss the subject 
of the founding of a seminary. Dr. Burrowes then 
announced his intention of presenting his library, 
which was an excellent one, ‘“‘to such an institution, 
whenever it should be established.’”’ But this was 
a community where all things had to be built from 
the foundations and where the burdens lay heavily 
upon the shoulders of a few faithful workers, and 
it was necessary that two years more should be 
allowed to pass before the idea finally crystallized 
into action. 

Dr. Alexander was at this time thirty-nine years 
of age, the youngest of the group of founders, and 
none too patient with people who were too slow. 
In consultation with Dr. Scott he drew up a plan for 
the organization of a seminary, and this plan he 
carried in his pocket to the Synod of 1871. In the 
meantime, at the September meeting of the Presby- 
te.y of San Francisco, Dr. Scott had made a presen- 
tation of the matter, whereupon the presbytery had 
memoralized the Synod to take such immediate 
action as might be possible. Thus these two 


272 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


memorials and all the influences that were behind 
them were concentrated in the Synod of 1871. In 
the end the Synod elected a Board of Directors, and, 
all of it on paper, established a seminary. The men 
who thus launched it committed themselves, without 
resources, to a vast undertaking. But they were 
men of courage and vision, and such men cannot 
finally fail. 

The first Board of Directors held their first meet- 
ing in a room of the old City College, on November 
7, 1871. Dr. Scott was elected President, and Mr. 
R. J. Trumbull, an elder of San Rafael, was elected 
Secretary. There was no treasurer, ) Dhefirsteact 
of the Board, after it was constituted, was to take 
up a collection to buy a book in which to keep the 
minutes. But the Board was still undaunted, and 
went right on with everything that seemed necessary 
for the erection of a fully organized seminary. It 
elected a full faculty of Professors. Dr. Scott was 
elected to the Chair of Logic and Systematic Theol- 
ogy; Dr. Daniel Warren Poor, then pastor of First 
Church, Oakland, was elected to the Chair of Church 
History and Church Government; and Dr. Alex- 
ander, who had now become President of the City 
College, was elected to the Chair of Hellenistic 
Greek and New Testament Exegesis. ‘The election 
of a professor of Hebrew Language and Exegesis 
was deferred to the second meeting of the Board, 
which was held in December, when Dr. Burrowes 
was chosen. It is doubtful whether any theological 
seminary that has been started in this country has 
begun its work with a stronger or more effective 
faculty. Each of the professors appointed was a 
gentleman and a scholar of high rank, who had al- 
ready attained recognition throughout the church. 


SAN FRaNcIscO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 278 


And while we are now speaking of the men who 
constituted the first inner group of leaders of the 
seminary, it seems to be a fitting place in which to 
introduce some characterization of them and their 
work. 

The greatest of our founders, and the one to 
whom through the extended history of fifty years we 
owe the most, is unquestionably the Reverend Wil- 
liam Anderson Scott, D.D., who was the first to think 
of and plan for the seminary, the first President of 
the Board of Directors, the first professor elected, 
the first President of the Faculty, the first trustee, 
the first to occupy an endowed chair. 

Next in importance among the founders we must 
reckon Dr. Alexander, who was Dr. Scott’s junior 
by eighteen years, and who possessed an enthusiasm 
and initiative which were invaluable qualities in 
the days of small things. At first he combined the 
presidency of the City College with the Chair of 
New ‘Testament Exegesis, obtaining his support 
from the former position. 

Dr. Daniel Warren Poor was the third gentle- 
man to be elected to the first faculty. He was born, 
the son of a missionary, in Tillipally, Ceylon, in 
1818, was graduated from Amherst College in 
1837, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 
1840. For the first six years of his ministry he 
was a Congregationalist, for forty-four years a 
Presbyterian. Of these years he spent twenty as 
pastor of the High Street Church of Newark, New 
Jersey, during which time he had an important part 
in the promotion of the German Churches of the 
Newark Presbytery, and the organization of the 
Bloomfield Theological Seminary. He became one 
of the editors of the English edition of Lange’s 


274. ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Commentary. In 1869 he was called to the First 
Church of Oakland and in 1871 was elected Pro- 
fessor of Church History in the seminary. He too 
supported himself in the professor’s chair by doing 
the work of a pastor. His connection with the 
seminary terminated in 1876, when he was called 
to be Corresponding Secretary of the Board of 
Education, and removed to Philadelphia. 

The fourth member of the original group of pro- 
fessors was the Reverend George Burrowes, D.D., 
to whom we have already referred in connection 
with his work in the City College. He was a man 
of the finest culture, a scholar and a Christian gen- 
tleman. His collection of Greek and Latin litera- 
ture is still one of the glories of our seminary 
library. He published three volumes and was a 
frequent contributor of prose and poetry to periodi- 
cal literature. He had the precision ot the scientist 
combined with the reverence of the mystic. Alto- 
gether, as he ripened and mellowed, he was one of 
the rarest and most beautiful characters which have 
blessed the ministry of the coast. 

What makes a great theological seminary? Cer- 
tainly it is not in the first instance endowments, or 
buildings, or equipment. It is men—the men who 
teach and the men who learn. Estimated in the 
terms of the power of its faculty, San Francisco 
Theological Seminary was born great. 

But except for its professors it was poor in every- 
thing. Its classes met in two rooms of the City 
College, provided by Dr. Alexander, and in rooms 
in the old St. John’s Church, on Post Street, near 
Mason, which had been fitted up by Dr. Scott. It 
had no money. Its library was the library of Dr. 


SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 275 


Burrowes, which, in accordance with his promise, 
he now donated to the institution. Subsequently the 
library of Dr. Scott also was given. 

Thus the seminary was launched; and it continued 
to operate without much change for the first five 
years. As there was no financial basis for the work 
one of the earliest efforts was to secure funds. 
Twice was a financial agent appointed to do this 
work, but the commercial depression of 1873 made 
these attempts largely nugatory. 

The early graduates, like Dr. Curry, love to ex- 
change reminiscences over those early days. The 
students were commonly called ‘“‘church mice,” be- 
cause they lived among the rafters of the school 
room of St. John’s Church. And it is said that 
Mrs. Scott, a motherly lady, with a soft face, used 
to darn the socks of the students and nurse them 
when they were ill. 

The first break in the original faculty came in 
1876 with the removal of Dr. Poor. ‘Then the 
Reverend James Fells, D.D., pastor of the First 
Church of Oakland, was called to be his successor. 

In the long roll of the men of light and leading 
with which the church on the Pacific Coast had been 
sitted ithe name ot: Dr.” Hells’ holds ‘one! of ‘the 
Digest splaccs  widemwaseavoreat preachers tolls 
grace and strength. In 1877 he attained the highest 
honor of our church in being made the Moderator 
of the General Assembly. Unhappily for our semi- 
nary, after a three years’ tenure of his chair Dr. 
Eells resigned to accept a similar position in Lane 
Theological Seminary. To anticipate somewhat, 
we are told that even at the time of his death in 
1886 he was planning to return to the coast to en- 


276 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


gage in a financial campaign in behalf of our 
seminary. 

In the meanwhile, from various quarters, the in- 
stitution had received by the close of 1876 funds 
amounting to the sum of $20,000. The first $5,000 
came from the First Church of Oakland and the 
balance chiefly as the result of representations made 
in the east by Dr. Eells. The trustees had begun 
their work with the clear understanding that under 
no circumstances would they go into debt, with all 
its hampering inconveniences. For the adoption of 
this sound policy the seminary body was especially 
indebted to Dr. Scott. 

But the need of a settled habitation where class- 
rooms, library and living quarters could all be 
brought together had now become increasingly 
manifest, and in 1877 the Trustees purchased a lot 
at 121 Haight Street, and erected a building there. 
This building was afterwards sold to the Foreign 
Mission Board for use as a Japanese Mission; and 
when the Japanese center shifted to another part 
of the city, it was sold by the Foreign Board to the 
Young Men’s Hebrew Association, by which it is 
used today. 

After the departure of Dr. Eells the Reverend 
John Hemphill, then the young pastor of Calvary 
Church, was appointed to take his place, which 
place he continued to fill until his removal to Phila- 
delphia in 1882. At a later period Dr. Hemphill 
again give his services gratuitously to one of the 
seminary chairs, and for this generosity has earned 
an honorable place in our memory. 

The first endowment was given by Mr. R. L. 
Stuart, of New York, in 1880, and, in the follow- 


SAN FRANCISCO "THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 277 


ing year, increased to the sum of $50,000, which 
was used for the foundation of the Chair of System- 
atic Theology. Dr. Scott, as was his due, was 
elected the first incumbent. But he did not take 
the total income to himself, as he would have been 
justified in doing, but divided it with his colleagues, 
so that henceforth each of them received some three 
or four hundred dollars a year for his services. 

For the second and third periods of our history 
we can touch only the high places. 

The chief characteristic of the second period, 
which extends from 1881 to 1892, was the steady 
accession of new friends who brought with them to 
the upbuilding of the institution new capacities and 
new endowments. During this period some of the 
early professors laid down their labors, and new 
professors took them up. 

The first death in the faculty was that of Dr. 
Scott, who passed from earth on January 14, 1885, 
believing to the end in the necessity and worth of 
the seminary and its rising influence. Dr. Scott 
came close to a time of great expansion, but he did 
not live to see it. In 1885 the Ladd Chair of Prac- 
tical Theology was endowed by Mr. William S. 
Ladd, of Portland, Oregon, one of the pioneers of 
his state, a man of immense force of leadership, and 
ameresoytcliannclicram nel ooosun Order toumect 
the conditions of the gift of Mr. Ladd, the Cali- 
fornia Chair of Church History was endowed by 
a concerted movement among the churches of this 
state. Up to this time there had been no installa- 
tion of professors because there had been no chairs 
with endowments in which to install them. But 
henceforth professors were regularly installed in 


278 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ofice. Owing to the brevity of our space we can 
do little more than name the new professors who 
served the seminary during this period. 

The first incumbent of the Ladd Chair was the 
Reverend Aaron Ladner Uindsley Dye igi 
who had been beloved pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church of Portland for eighteen years. He 
entered upon his duties in the seminary in 1886 and, 
while on a visit to his old home in Portland, died 
in the summer of 1891. 

The Reverend Thomas Fraser, D.D., was elected 
to the chair of Systematic Theology in 1887, from 
which ‘he jretired five jyears later to engagewan 
Evangelistic work. 

The Reverend Robert Mackenzie, D.D., LL.D., 
became a professor in the seminary in 1889, upon 
the foundation of the Montgomery Chair, of which 
we shall speak later. He was one of the most 
famous of the preachers and ecclesiastical leaders 
of the whole history of the coast. He had a rare 
gift of persuasive eloquence and a wide influence 
in the city of San Francisco among men who were 
not generally identified with churches. In the First 
Presbyterian Church, of which he was pastor, he 
gathered about him a great congregation. Among 
those who were attracted to his ministry was Mr. 
Alexander Montgomery, who subsequently became 
the chief benefactor of the seminary. Upon Mr. 
Montgomery's nomination Dr. Mackenzie was 
elected the first incumbent of the Montgomery 
Chair of Apologetics and Missions. Dr. Mac- 
kenzie removed to New York in 1901 to become 
the pastor of Rutgers Church. He returned to the 
seminary as president in 1909, but after a few 


SAN FRANCISCO ‘THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 279 


months of occupancy of the office resigned to accept 
the secretaryship of the Board of Colleges. 

The Reverend Thomas Franklin Day, D.D., was 
elected in 1891 as assistant and successor to Dr. 
Burrowes in the Chair of Greek and Hebrew 
Exegesis. Previous to his election he had been a 
missionary in Utah, where for ten years he was 
a leader in the struggle against Mormonism. With 
the separation of the chairs of Greek and Hebrew 
Exegesis in 1896, Dr. Day chose the Old Testa- 
ment department as his particular field, and in this 
he continued until 1911, when he retired from the 
active work of teaching. Dr. Day is still with us, 
living in San Anselmo, so that concerning him, as 
well as others whose names we might mention, we 
cannot speak so freely as we would. For many 
years he stood as the avowed representative of 
modern critical views of the origin of the books 
of the Old Testament, and his positions were the 
subject of a prolonged controversy which largely 
engaged the Synods of the three years 1909—I9I1. 
Some of his brethren opposed him because they 
strongly rejected his critical teaching; others because 
they felt that the practical work of the church in 
this Synod should not be imperilled by the dis- 
cussion of questions so remote from life as the unity 
of the Pentateuch. There was no doubt in the 
mind of anyone about Dr. Day’s loyalty to the 
great truths of the faith. Finally, in a fine spirit 
of self-abnegation, he withdrew voluntarily in order 
to preserve the peace and unity of the church. 

The Reverend Henry Colin Minton, D.D., 
LL.D., succeeded Dr. Fraser in the Chair of Syste- 
matic Theology in 1892, and immediately became 


280 ‘THr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


recognized as one of the most brilliant professors 
of the entire church. He was honored by his 
brethren by being elected to almost every office that 
lay within the gift of the Church. In 1go1 he be- 
came the Moderator of the General Assembly. 
Shortly after this event he resigned from his chair 
to accept the pastorate of First Church of Trenton, 
New Jersey. He was another of the giants who 
have attained their full stature in the service of 
this seminary. He spent the evening of his days 
near to the scenes of his labors in San Anselmo. 
When he died in 1924, it was out of Montgomery 
Chapel that his remains were borne to their last 
resting place. 

Mr. Charles Gurdon Buck is the one lay member 
of the faculty. While he has not held a chair, he 
has held an endowed instructorship in Vocal Culture 
and Sacred Music. As he was elected in 1890 he 
is now rounding out a period of thirty-seven years 
of consecutive service to the Seminary. 

It had always been recognized by the members 
of the seminary body that the location and build- 
ing on Haight Street could be only a temporary 
home. And now the question of a permanent loca- 
tion thrust itself upon the attention of the Board 
of Directors. Various possible locations in the city 
and elsewhere were discussed, and finally the judg- 
ment of the Directors was determined by the offer 
of Mr. Arthur W. Foster, of San Rafael, of the 
site upon which the seminary now stands. ‘This 
was in 1891. 

In the meantime, partly through the influence of 
Dr. Mackenzie, and partly through that of Mr. 
Foster, the attention of Mr. Montgomery was 


SAN FRANCISCO "THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 281 


directed to the seminary as a place where a Chris- 
tian capitalist, who desired to get the largest pos- 
sible returns on his investment, might with advan- 
tage employ a large amount of money. Mr. Mont- 
gomery soon afterwards became a benefactor to 
the sum of $250,000, of which part was expended 
upon the buildings now standing on the top of the 
mound, part for the endowment of the Mont- 
gomery Chair of Apologetics and Missions, another 
part for the endowment of the Gray Chair of 
Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament Literature, 
and the remainder upon houses for the professors 
and other needs. Later he gave money for the 
erection of the Montgomery Memorial Chapel at 
the foot of the hill, where his earthly remains lie 
buried. It was Mr. Montgomery’s desire, in be- 
stowing his gifts, to leave behind him a foundation 
which would endure to the glory of God and the 
uplift of men as long as the State of California 
should continue in being. And who can say that 
he chose amiss? 

Of Mr. Foster, who was so closely associated 
with both Dr. Scott and Mr. Montgomery, we can- 
not now speak particularly. He is still with us. 
Suffice to say that he was first the parishoner and 
friend, and afterwards the son-in-law of Dr. Scott, 
sharing his vision of this place; and he was the 
intimate confident of Mr. Montgomery. 

Another name of distinction in this period was 
that of the Reverend Arthur Crosby, D.D., of San 
Rafael, who was active in the raising of endowment 
in the east. 

The third period covers more than three decades, 
and it must be briefly told. It begins with the dedi- 


282 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


cation of the new seminary buildings in San 
Anselmo, on September 21, 1892, and reaches down 
to the present time. 

The members of the seminary being once settled 
in their new home there was a quiet and almost un- 
varying routine for the following ten years. 

We have already referred to the death of Dr. 
Lindsley, which occurred in 1891. The following 
year the Board of Directors chose as his successor 
in the Ladd Chair the Reverend Warren Hall Lan- 
don, D.D., who is now the President of the Semi- 
nary. Dr. Landon has thus given to the institution 
thirty-five years of service, eighteen as professor, 
and seventeen as president. His has always been 
a kindly influence, smoothing out the discrepancies 
of the road, and bringing peace. In the swiftly 
changing scenes of the life of our community, with 
its incidental jar and strain, one cannot overestimate 
the value to the church of his irenical personality, 
and his gift of administration. 

Another new professor who entered the seminary 
during this period was the Reverend John Henry 
Kerr, D.D., who in 1895 was called to the Chair of 
Greek Exegesis and New ‘Testament  Litera- 
ture, and who rendered service of the finest quality 
for the space of seven years, when he was called to 
New York to become secretary of the American 
Tract Society. 

In many respects the year 1902 marks the lowest 
ebb of depression in this chapter. Professors 
Mackenzie, Minton and Kerr were all gone. Pro- 
fessors Alexander and Day received only half of 
their normal salaries. A large part of the endow- 
ments ceased to yield any income. ‘The students 





REV. WARREN HALL LANDON, D.D., LL.D. 





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SAN FRANCISCO "THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 283 


who should have constituted the senior class of 
1903, being fearful that there would be no adequate 
instruction, left the institution to take their final 
year in another seminary. The sole student left in 
the senior class was the Reverend Alvin E. Magary, 
Ph.D., D.D., now of Detroit. His subsequent 
career of distinction shows that his loyalty to a des- 
perate cause was no error. But in this hour of dis- 
heartenment it was time for things to begin to 
amend. 

The Board now gave closer attention to the in- 
vestment of its funds. It appointed as business 
manager Mr. Charles A. Laton, who for more than 
twenty years held this responsible office. The 
Finance Committee was reorganized, and became 
able gradually to withdraw the funds from non- 
productive investments and reinvest them where 
they produced income. A lot and business building 
on California Street, which had been left to the 
Seminary by Mr. J. D. Thompson, was now sold 
for $145,000 and the proceeds were invested as a 
fund for general maintenance. 

And the depleted faculty was restored by the 
coming of the Reverend Hugh Watts Gilchrist, 
D.D., to give instruction in the Greek New Testa- 
ment and the Reverend John S$. McIntosh, D.D., 
to become Stuart Professor of Systematic Theology. 
Dr. McIntosh was a courtly gentleman and a dis- 
tinguished scholar. Subsequently he was elected 
president of the Seminary. He made many new 
friends for it in all sections of the Pacific Coast. 
After a brief three and a half years of service he 
died in January, 1906. The Reverend Charles 


Gordon Paterson, a recent graduate of the Semi- 


284 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


nary, was also drawn into service in the emergency 
of 1903. He became Dr. Alexander’s successor in 
1906 and continued as professor of Church Huis- 
tory until he removed to Winnipeg, Canada, in 
1914. Five years later he went home to his Mas- 
ter, leaving a fragrant memory of fine idealism, 
courageous devotion to the social meaning of the 
Gospel, and untiring sympathy with the needs of 
his fellowmen. 

In 1905 the author entered upon his duties in 
the Seminary as professor of New Testament Inter- 
pretation, and has so continued in sunshine and rain 
for twenty-two years. ‘Thus he is a part of the 
history of later years. But already, in 1905, the 
Seminary was emerging from the shadows which 
had temporarily darkened it. 

In 1906 the Rev. Thomas Verner Moore, D.D., 
became professor of Systematic Theology in suc- 
cession to Dr. McIntosh, and held this position for 
twenty years, dying in June, 1926. He was a 
strong, cogent thinker, an enemy of mysticism and 
a friend of clear, logical definition:.» Ele shadea 
great, kindly soul, and left an ineffaceable impress 
upon a whole generation of theological students. 

In 1913 the Synod of California unanimously 
adopted a new plan for the Seminary which placed 
it henceforth directly and exclusively under the con- 
trol of the General Assembly. A new charter was 
now obtained from the State of California under 
which the Seminary received the power of confer- 
ring degrees. 

We can only briefly refer to the other men who 
now compose the faculty. In 1913 the Reverend 


William Henry Oxtoby, D.D., was called from the 


SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 285 


Tabernacle Church of Philadelphia to be Gray 
Professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament 
Literature. Beside discharging the full duties of 
his chair he has served the church in manifold prac- 
tical ways, especially in the cause of Christian Edu- 
cation. In 1915 the Reverend Remsen Dubois 
Bird, D.D., became California Professor of 
Church History, and held the chair with distinction 
until 1921, when he was called to the presidency of 
Occidental College. In 1920 the Reverend Lynn 
Townsend White, D.D., formerly pastor of San 
Rafael Church, became the first incumbent of the 
Margaret Dollar Chair of Christian Sociology, with 
which office he combines the duties of librarian. In 
the same year the Reverend Edwin Forrest Hallen- 
beck, D.D., was called from the pulpit of the First 
Church of San Diego to the Ladd Professorship of 
Practical Theology. In 1922 the Reverend John 
Elliott Wishart, D.D., LL.D., was called from the 
Xenia Seminary of the United Presbyterian 
Church to succeed Dr. Bird as Professor of Church 
History. And in 1924 the Reverend Merlo K. W. 
Heicher, Ph.D., became the first Professor of Mis- 
sions on the Thayer Foundation. ‘These are the 
men who compose the permanent faculty of today. 

For longer or shorter periods the Seminary has 
had the benefit of the services of other able men, 
notably the Reverend William Martin, M.A., who 
held the Montgomery Chair from 1910 to 1914, 
and then became pastor of the Yokohama Union 
Church, dying in 1920; and the Reverend Hugh 
Henry Bell, D.D., who occupied the Ladd Chair 
from 1916 to 1919. 

Among the strong friends raised up to bless the 


286 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Seminary in recent years especial mention should 
be made of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dollar, who en- 
dowed the chairs of New Testament Interpreta- 
tion and Christian Sociology, so that the friends of 
the Seminary insisted that these chairs should be 
called by their names. ‘They also gave the beautiful 
chime of bells which morning and evening peal out 
to the surrounding hills. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence 
A. Thayer endowed the Chair of Missions, thus 
giving this Seminary a strong missionary foun- 
dation. ? 

Other prominent friends of the Seminary are 
Messrs. Almer M. Newhall, Charles A. Belden, 
J. D. Richards, Jed W. Burns and William M. 
Wheeler; and in every case the wives of these good 
elders share their husbands’ interest in the institu- 
tion. 

Among the recent development are the admis- 
sion of women on equal terms with men, the build- 
ing of a group of cottages for the use of mission- 
aries on furlough, who desire to pursue graduate 
study, and the inauguration of a system of week-end 
work in connection with Trinity Center, San Fran- 
cisco, where students can learn how other people 
live, and what to do to reach and serve them. 

In 1922 Mr. Samuel D. Archibald was elected 
Business Manager in succession to Mr. Laton. 

Today the graduates of San Francisco Theo- 
logical Seminary are found in every section of the 
coast from the farthest north in Alaska to the far- 
thest south on the Mexican boundary. ‘They are in 
most of the states of the union and on every foreign 
field of our church throughout the world. 


CHAPTER XV 
THE WORK OF THE WOMEN 


WAV ELEN one comes to speaking of women’s work 
it is necessary that first of all there should be 
the clear recognition of the fact that this work is far 
wider than the range of organized women’s work, 
specifically so called. The acknowledged work is 
great; but the unacknowledged is far greater. There 
is many a church where some good woman, or group 
of women, without holding any office, is nevertheless 
the life and motive power of all the work that is done 
there. Though women may not be ordained to the 
eldership, there is many a mission church where, 
without the aid of the women, the minister would 
have no one to support him in any spiritual under- 
taking. And behind the minister stands the min- 
ister’s wife, sharing his privations and discourage- 
ments, bearing with him all his burdens, praying and 
singing, and cheering her husband on his way. A 
very large part of the secret of the successful min- 
ister is the minister’s wife. Mother, sister, wife and 
daughter, what a place they have held in the manse! 
What strength have they brought to the preacher’s 
arm, and what spring to his step! There is of course 
another side to this discussion; for if a muinister’s 
wife can save him, she can also destroy him. It is 
likely that the most common cause of ministerial 
failure on the Pacific Coast has been that the min- 
287 


288 ‘THr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


ister’s wife was out of sympathy with his life and 
work, or unsuitable in some way. Few men can sur- 
vive such a handicap. All of which is simply to say 
in another way that the influence of women, for good 
and for ill, is immeasurable. ‘The indirect power of 
their own regularly organized work is only surpassed 
by the indirect control which, with all grace, tender- 
ness and loveliness, they exert over the offices which 
are supposed to be the exclusive prerogative of the 
men. 

It is only about one hundred years since women 
attained such a measure of social freedom that they 
were able to effect independent organizations within 
Protestant Churches. Then the Christian women of 
America began to concern themselves with new 
thoughts of service, which involved new capacities of 
personal development. It is only a little more than 
fifty years since the Presbyterian women of Cali- 
fornia began to organize themselves into missionary 
societies. 

The years of reconstruction following the Civil 
War were notable in the history of foreign missions, 
for all over America as one expression of the uprush 
of the new vitality felt in the soul of the nation there 
sprang into existence women’s organizations for mis- 
sions, which soon were crystallized into great Mis- 
sion Boards. ‘The Congregational and Methodist 
women led the way in 1868; and in 1870 there fol- 
lowed the first Presbyterian Women’s Board, the 
Philadelphia Society. ‘The enthusiasm consequent 
upon reunion carried forward this movement with a 
sweep, and five other Boards were formed through- 
out the nation in quick succession. ‘The Occidental 
Board, the first to be launched upon the Pacific Coast, 





OCCIDENTAL BOARD PIONEERS 


Mrs. ALBERT WILLIAMS Mrs. GEORGE BARSTOW 
President 1873-1874 President 1874-1877 


Mrs. P. D. BROWNE 
President 1877-1900 


Mrs. I. M. ConpitT Mrs. E. V. ROBBINS 
Founder Editor 





THre Work OF THE WOMEN 289 


came into existence on March 25, 1873, but was at 
first known as the California Branch oY the Women’s 
Missionary Society. 

It was then that a little company of faithful 
women met in the old Calvary Church, and, in order 
to accomplish something effectual for the ante of 
non-Christian women and children, decided to organ- 
ize. The first officers were as follows: President, 
Mrs. Albert Williams; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. S. B. 
Cooper and Mrs. Lorenzo Hubbard; Secretary, 
Mrs. I. M. Condit; Recorder, Miss Kate Nicholls. 
The constitution, adopted at a subsequent meeting, 
on April 14, defined the purpose of the Society thus: 


An aid to the General Society in sending to foreign fields 
and sustaining female missionaries, Bible readers and 
teachers, who shall labor among heathen women and 
children. 


But this wide-reaching aim had to be confined, in 
the initial stages of the new Society, to the one specific 
work of caring for Chinese women and children in 
California. 

In372) theres was; now lxclusion; Act. Gbivery 
steamer brought Chinese immigrants through the 
Golden Gate, and among them were many women of 
low caste. Mrs. Condit, the wife of the Rev. I. M. 
Condit, D.D., who in 1870 had returned from China 
to work among the Chinese in California, felt 
especially the burden of the Chinese women who 
were practically slaves of vice. Thus it came to pass 
that the first plans of the Society, which included the 
establishment of an orphanage in Shanghai, were ex- 
changed for others, which involved the founding of 
a home for Chinese women and girls in San Fran- 


290 ‘CHE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


cisco. In July, 1874, a committee was appointed to 
‘find a suitable house for a rescue home, and in August 
the upper floor of a small new building at 8% 
Prospect Place was rented, and Miss S$. M. Cum- 
mings, who had expected to be the first Missionary 
of the Board to go to China, was installed as matron 
with two Chinese girls under her care. ‘The good 
news of the home spread rapidly through Chinatown. 
A larger house at 933 Sacramento Street was occu- 
pied on October 31, 1876. 

In June, 1878, Miss Margaret Culbertson took 
charge of the home and for seventeen years faced 
dangers and overcame difficulties and laid deep and 
strong the foundations for the great work to which 
it was destined. Upon the death of Miss Culbertson 
in 1897 Miss Mary Field became superintendent, 
and she, in turn, was succeeded in 1900 by Miss 
Donaldina Cameron, a woman of rare charm and 
courage, who has continued as_ superintendent 
through all the subsequent years. 

In time more room was needed and a new build- 
ing was erected at 920 Sacramento Street, which was 
destroyed by the fire of 1906, and two years later 
replaced by the present attractive edifice. In 1915 a 
home for the younger girls was established in East 
Oakland, which later developed into the beautiful 
Ming Quong Home. 

Other Oriental girls have been cared for at vari- 
ous times within the home. The work for Japanese 
girls was subsequently transferred to the Methodist 
Church. 

From the beginnings of the church on the coast, 
schools were conducted for the benefit of Chinese in 
San Francisco, and afterwards in Sacramento, San 


THe WorK OF THE WOMEN 291 


Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other places. A 
class held in the historic Globe Hotel by Mrs. C. H. 
Cole, a retired missionary, was the initial enterprise 
out of which grew the Occidental Day School, where 
some of the future leaders of Chinatown were 
trained. Among these is Dr. Ng Poon Chew, who 
gratefully remembers Miss Baskin, his teacher. 

With the reorganization of the Board in 1922, all 
the Oriental work in California was placed under 
the care of the Board of National Missions. 

Let us return now to the history of the organiza- 
tion which we left with the adoption of a constitution 
by the Society in April, 1873. It was a busy period. 

The women of the church had to be gathered into 
missionary societies, auxiliary to the Board. The 
first of these was First Church, Oakland, in April, 
1873; then followed San Diego in July; Santa Clara 
in November; San Jose, Calvary Church, San Fran- 
cisco, and Hirst Church, San’ Francisco, in March, 
1874; Trinity Church, San Francisco, in July, 1874; 
Howard in San Francisco, Brooklyn in Oakland, and 
Carson City, in 1874; Westminster, Franklin Street, 
Danville and Sacramento in 1875; San Bernardino, 
Los Angeles and Chico in 1876; San Rafael, Virginia 
ityoe Nevada, (Pasadena and ,Vallejosinwi1ery;: 
Alameda, Santa Barbara, Stockton and Santa Rosa 
in 1878. 

These societies quickly took up the work and offer- 
ings began to come regularly into the treasury. 
About this time children’s work was begun, the first 
band of seven members being named in honor of 
Mr. John Arundel of London who made the first 
donation of twenty-five dollars to the Home for 


Chinese Girls. 


292 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


In 1874, after the removal of Mrs. Williams from 
San Francisco, Mrs. George Barstow became prest- 
dent of the Board, and served it with tact and grace 
during its formative period. But there were still 
some worthy men who looked askance at all this 
organizing done by women, and in 1875 there was 
held a joint meeting of the Synod of California and 
the California Branch of the Women’s Foreign Mis- 
sion Society, at which a complete understanding was 
reached, and from which dates the custom of the 
presentation to the Synod of the annual report of the 
Occidental Board. | 

In 1876 Mrs. P. D. Browne became president, 
with a fine band of co-workers, among whom must — 
be named Mrs. J. G. Chown, Mrs. L. A. Kelly, Mrs. 
E.. G. Denniston, Mrs. E. G. Gassette, and Mrs. W. 
H. Hamilton. Mrs. Denniston, as treasurer, carried 
the ever-increasing financial responsibility of her 
ofhce for twenty-seven years; Mrs. Kelly rendered a 
large service in gathering the funds for both of the 
successive buildings at 920 Sacramento Street. 

At the annual meeting of 1877, in order to em- 
brace within the organization the whole Pacific Coast, 
the name California Branch was changed to Occi- 
dental Branch, and this name in 1881 was changed 
to Occidental Board. At the annual meeting of 1883 
it was voted to organize Presbyterial Societies fol- 
lowing the lines of the Presbyteries and immediately 
this action was put into effect in San Francisco, San 
Jose, Benicia and Los Angeles Presbyteries. Next 
year Sacramento also was organized. 

Up to this point our narrative has concerned itself 
with work done in northern California. Now we 
turn to the consideration of work done in foreign 


I. 
2. 
3. 


. 





OCCIDENTAL BOARD GOLD STAR MISSIONARIES 


LoutisE McGowan McLEAN 
LovuIsE WILBUR SHEDD 

Dr. CAROLIN MERWIN 
EMMA CAMPBELL COZZENS 
Mary STEWART McFARLAND 
Mary Hays JOHNSON 


7. MARION SKINNER BROOKS 
8. AUGUSTA Gist MCKEE 
9. KATHRYN F. STEWART 

to. Mary M. WALLACE 

tr. SADIE NoURSE WELBON 

12. Dr. ALICE Fish MorFretr 





THE WorK OF THE WOMEN 293 


lands. From the beginning the Occidental Board 
gave through its auxiliary societies various small 
sums to practically all the Presbyterian Mission Sta- 
tions abroad, and in 1879 it adopted as its missionary 
Harriette Eddy Hoskins, of Syria. In 1883 the 
Board sent out its own first foreign missionary born 
on the Pacific Coast, Miss Mindora Berry, now Mrs. 
Goodwin, who was designated to China. For rea- 
sons of health she was able to remain on the field 
only three years, but both before going and after 
returning she assisted the Board greatly in its con- 
structive work of organization, especially among 
young people and children, and was a pioneer in con- 
ducting classes for mission study. Altogether 135 
young women have gone forth under the Occidental 
Board to labor and suffer in strange and distant 
lands. They are all worthy of being named, but the 
limits of our space forbid our citing more than those 
who are enrolled upon the list of eleven gold star 
missionaries, who, even in their young womanhood, 
have received the crown of glory. Mrs. Mary Hayes 
Johnson and Mrs. Emma Campbell Cozzens gave 
their lives to Africa; Miss Kathryn Stewart to India; 
Mrs. C. C. Vinton, Dr. Alice Fish Moffett and Mrs. 
Elizabeth Fuller Whiting to Korea; Miss Sargais 
Hoormah and Mrs. Louise Wilbur Shedd to Persia; 
Mrs. Louise McEwan McLean to Chile; Mrs. 
Augusta List McKee and Dr. Caroline S. Merwin 
to China. 

School and hospital ward have been the chief fields 
of service in which the women’s societies have par- 
ticipated. In the mission schools the children of 
king and peasant have been taught together. The 
Reverend Ray C. Smith, a faithful missionary of the 


294 [HE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Occidental Board, gave his life in the work of a boys’ 
school in India. The first hospital built on foreign 
ground by the Board was known as “In His Name 
Hospital’ at Syen Chun, Korea, erected in 1912, 
and served by Dr. Alfred Sharrocks, an unwearying 
medical missionary, until he died at his post. 
Through the doors of the mission hospital has filed 
a long procession of the world’s sadness, the halt, 
the blind, the lame, the incapacitated and the suffer- 
ing, old and young, men and women, afflicted with all 
manner of disease and in all stages of their afflic- 
tion, an endless procession, and hopeless, until 
touched by the compassion of the heart of Jesus, 
mediated through the skillful hands of the mission- 
ary physician. Turkey, China, Korea, India, Africa, 
South America and the Island countries, all of them 
have centers of light, growing, glowing, kindling and 
healing, which have been founded and fostered 
through the efforts of the noble women of the Occi- 
dental Board. 

Mrs. P. D. Browne held the presidency for 
twenty-three years, during which time the work of 
the Board grew from its small beginnings into its 
full maturity and power. She retired from office in 
1900. She was succeeded by Mrs. C. S. Wright, the 
daughter of Nathaniel Gray, to whom reference has 
been made elsewhere, and a wise administrator, who 
retired in April, 1906. Mrs. H. B. Pinney came 
into office amid the ruins of the great fire, and upon 
her lay the strenuous task of guiding the affairs of 
the Board through the period of reconstruction. 
She and her co-workers rose bravely to the emer- 
gency, so that none of the larger interests abroad 
were allowed to suffer because of the unusual diffi- 





Mrs. C. S. WRIGHT Mrs. H. B. PINNEY 
1900-6 1906-19 





Mrs. RAWLINS CADWALLADER 
1919-27 


THE PRESIDENTS OF THE OCCIDENTAL BOARD 





THE WorkK OF THE WOMEN 295 


culties at home. In 1919 Mrs. Pinney retired from 
the presidency and Mrs. Rawlins Cadwallader was 
elected to succeed her. The jubilee year of the 
work of the National Women’s Missionary organi- 
zation, fell in 1920, and in its celebration in Cali- 
fornia Mrs. Cadwallader was the guiding spirit. 

At the time of meeting of the General Assembly 
in 1924 the Board voluntarily voted to merge itself 
into the Pacific District to be organized for both 
Home and Foreign work. It was truly a sublime 
act of self-effacement. Thus, in 1925, after fifty- 
two years of distinctive work, the Occidental Board 
surrendered its independent organization and _ its 
name; but its work goes on. 

There was however one value in the Occidental 
Board which was in danger of being lost in the 
reorganization, unless some plan should be devised 
to conserve it. This Board and each of the five 
other Women’s Boards which were merged in the 
new organization had been very close to their re- 
spective constituencies. Might not this personal 
touch cease to be felt in the very largeness of the 
new order? ‘To meet this need there was devised 
a system of “Districts,” and thus the “Occidental 
District’? became the worthy successor of the Occi- 
dental Board, and the first officers of the new Dis- 
trict Committee were practically the same as the ofh- 
cers of the former Occidental Board, with Mrs. 
Rawlins Cadwallader as chairman. But the move- 
ment toward close unity of Home and Foreign Mis- 
sions was irresistible. After all missions are mis- 
sions, whether at home or abroad, directed to the 
propagation of the Gospel among human beings, 
who all alike have souls, and sins, and are in need 


296 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


of a Savior. ‘Thus the six Foreign District Com- 
mittees in their turn passed out of existence to be 
succeeded by joint District Committees, organized 
in the interests of both Home and Foreign Mis- 
sions. In the west the Pacific District Committee 
was organized to include the areas which had for- 
merly been covered by the Occidental and North 
Pacific Districts. Thus the name Occidental disap- 
peared from the roll. If there was some inevitable 
sadness over the passing of the old order, there 
was also joy and hopefulness in greeting the new 
program of co-operation. 

The New Paciic District committee after study- 
ing the conditions of the coast came to the conclu- 
sion that it would be better to subdivide the District 
into two parts and that a very small advisory com- 
mittee for each District would be most effective. 
Thus in the fall of 1926 there was substituted for the 
former large Pacific District Committee a District 
Committee of five, centering in San Francisco with 
Mrs. A. F. Hockenbeamer as Chairman, and another 
of three, centering in Portland, with Mts. spe 
Thaxter as Chairman. 

We must now turn backward to the story of the 
Women’s Synodical Society for Home Missions, the 
other one of the two merging societies, which in 
consequence of the report of Dr. Thomas Fraser, 
Synodical Missionary, to the Synod meeting in San 
Jose, in 1879, was organized to be an auxiliary in 
the whole work of Home Missions within the Pres- 
byteries of the Synod. A committee of three women 
from each Presbytery was appointed, and, in accord- 
ance with their instructions, they met on December 
12, 1879, in old Calvary Church, and organized what 





Miss M. CuLBERTSON Mrs. MINpDoRA BERRY- 
GOODWIN 


LEADERS OF THE FOREIGN WORK OF THE WOMEN 


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THE Work OF THE WoMEN 297 


was one of the earliest Synodical Societies in the 
church, antedating by three years the similar organi- 
zations of the period in the Synods of New York, 
Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is evident that the 
pioneer women of the west were not afraid to make 
a venture. Or perhaps the Home Mission needs 
were more directly thrust upon their attention. 

The officers elected at this first meeting were as 
follows: President, Mrs. E. S. Cameron; Vice- 
Presidents, Mesdames J. W. Burling, G. M. Dim- 
mick, W. W. Brier, H. H. Rice, and Gunn (of San 
Diego); “Recording Secretary, Mrs. H. E.’ Hall; 
Corresponding Secretary, Miss Lucy Grove; Treas- 
urer, Mrs. James M. Newell. 

In the following year it was recommended by the 
Society that in the interest of efhciency the number 
of members from San Francisco Presbytery be in- 
creased, and that through a nominating committee of 
their own choosing, the personnel of the Synodical 
Committee to be appointed should be presented to 
Synod. 

Mrs. Newell, the treasurer, who lived in Santa 
Clara at that time, found herself obliged to resign 
and was succeeded by Mrs. O. L. Nash. It is inter- 
esting to note that all the early treasurers conducted 
their correspondence with Mrs. M. E. Boyd, of New 
York, who was the first treasurer of the “Women’s 
Executive Committee of Home Missions,’ and who 
later came to California and made her home with 
her daughter, Mrs. J. H. Laughlin. As there was 
little formal business to transact at these early meet- 
ings the women made prayer the chief part of their 
programs. Mrs. Cameron, the first president, had 
a rare gift of leadership in devotion. 


298 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


But soon Mrs. Cameron removed to the Hawaiian 
Islands and Miss Grove became both President and 
corresponding secretary. In the days before Presby- 
terial Societies existed, her gifted pen carried the 
messages of the committee to the scattered local so- 
cieties in the churches. In 1883 Los Angeles and 
Benicia Presbyteries were organized for both Home 
and Foreign Missions and for some years were the 
only Presbyterial organizations doing any Home 
Missions work. 

In 1884 the women of Los Angeles Society began 
work among the local Chinese under the guidance — 
of Mrs. Chapin, a retired missionary from China. 
They also opened a Spanish School and placed it 
under the care of Miss Boone. ‘This has grown to 
be one of large importance and now bears the name 
of one of the beloved early presidents of the Pres- 
byterial Society, Miss R. J. Forsythe, and is called 
the Forsythe Memorial School. ‘The following year, 
at the meeting of the Women’s Executive Commit- 
tee, it was recommended in a reference to the Synodi- 
cal Society of the Pacific that special attention be 
given to actual mission work among Indians and 
Mexicans. 

A large part of the activity of the local Societies 
at this time seems to have been expended upon mak- 
ing up donation boxes to be sent to the families of 
home missionaries living in frontier communities. 
Many of these boxes contained stuff that was pa- 
thetically unsuitable for the purpose for which it was 
intended, and Mrs. W. S. Bartlett, a witty lady and 
a' corresponding secretary of the Synodical Society 
of those middie years, did a good service in en- 
deavoring to raise the standard of the contributions 
of the local societies. 


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THE WorK OF THE WOMEN 299 


The succession of presidents is one of capable and 
consecrated women. ‘They are Mrs. R. M. Steven- 
son, Mrs. Willis T. Perkins, Mrs. R. B. Goddard, 
the last named of whom held office from 1900 to 
1914. Other efficient officers were Miss Jennie 
Partridge, Mrs. J. P. Prutzman, Mrs. A. G. Garratt 
and Miss Julia Fraser, who entered ofhce as Young 
People’s Secretary, became the General Secretary of 
the Women’s Board, with headquarters in New 
York, in 1909-1913, and returning to California 
became president of the Synodical Society in 1914, 
which office she held up to the time of the reorgant- 
zation of the Boards. | 

The chief aim of the Women’s Synodical Society 
was the steady, constant increase of contributions 
from among the women of the Synod for the gen- 
eral work of Home Missions. But it fostered also 
certain special objects. or instance in January, 
1901, the Board commissioned Miss M. G. Chase 
to work among the Indians of the Hoopa reservation 
in Humboldt County. Miss Chase completely won 
the affections of her people, nursing the sick and 
burying the dead, and rendering services of many 
kinds. At North Fork in Madera County there was 
a similar example of beautiful Christian devotion 
where Miss Nellie McGraw, afterwards Mrs. Joel 
Hedgpeth, Miss Dorothy Damkroeger, Miss Mars- 
ton, the Reverend and Mrs. Alexander Hood, Miss 
Blackford, afterwards Mrs. J. W. Dinsmore, and 
others, wrought in a holy succession. Other work 
among the Indians was undertaken in Shasta County, 
near Glenburn. 

For a time the meetings of the committee were 
held in a room provided by Mrs. Garratt in her home 
on Washington Street, until this was wiped out in 


300 ‘THeE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the fire of 1906. Upon the rebuilding of the home 
at 920 Sacramento Street the Occidental Board gen- 
erously gave the use of a room to the Synodical So- 
ciety for a depository and office, and Mrs. M. L. 
Whaley was put in charge. Later all the offices of 
the women’s organizations were concentrated at 
278 Post Street, in Presbyterian Headquarters. Mrs. 
A. T. Aldrich, afterwards Mrs. C. E. Cornell, was 
appointed Field Secretary by the Women’s Board 
and upon her resignation Mrs. F. E. Bancroft was 
chosen to this important post. Mrs. Bancroft, being 
the daughter of Mrs. P. D. Browne, is heir to a 
rich tradition in family and in office, and is true to 
the succession. 

Among the conspicuous achievements of recent 
years has been the foundation of the Potrero Hill 
Neighborhood House, for the benefit of the large 
community of Russian people living in this part of 
sani Francisco. ) Here Mr, and Mrs:aWalterug: 
Tanghe are doing a work both deep and wide for 
the benefit of one of the most difficult foreign popu- 
lations of our state. 

It has been work faithfully done by women who 
have had to sacrifice time and money to its perform- 
ance. The results of their labor are found in all 
parts of the Pacific Coast, north and south. As they 
have given to others their own lives have been im- 
mensely enriched. And their labor also now enters 
into the combined work of the new Women’s Synodi- 
cal Society for Missions. 

But before we proceed to this we must speak of 
the California Synodical Society for Foreign Mis- 
sions. The organization of this society was necessi- 
tated by the fact that the territory in which the Occi- 





THE EARLIER LEADERS OF WOMEN’S HOME MISSION WORK 


1. Miss Lucy GRovE 5. Mrs. MARTHA E. CHASE 
2. Mrs. EMMA S. CAMERO 6. Mrs. R. M. STEVENSON 
3. Mrs. Susan A. HALL 7. Mrs. W. T. PERKINS 
4. Mrs. Francis L. NAsH 8. Mrs. F. M. DimMIcK 





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THe Work oF THE WOMEN 301 


dental Board was operating was enlarged by the ad- 
dition of Arizona in 1903 and Utah in 1908 and 
Synodical organizations were set up in the three 
Synods which now constituted the field of operations 
of the Occidental Board. Most of the organization 
of this new Society was concentrated in the southern 
part of the state, so that the new churches now 
rising with power in the south were thus given a more 
adequate share of the work of general administra- 
tion. Mrs. R. W. Cleland was elected President. 
Mrs. George Bradbeer, Treasurer, and Mrs. Lav- 
erty, Secretary. Mrs. Cleland continued to be presi- 
dent for eleven fruitful years, resigning in 1921, 
when she was succeeded by Mrs. Marshall C. Hayes, 
who continued in office until 1924, when the two 
Synodical Societies were merged in one. ‘This So- 
ciety, during the fourteen years of its lifetime, 
gave a closer fellowship between the Presbyterial 
Societies, so that they steady strength of the larger 
organization entered into and empowered the smaller 
ones, many of which were located in isolated com- 
munities. And moreover the existence of two synodi- 
cal organizations, co-extensive in their territory, and 
complementary in their purpose, one aiming at the 
propagation of the faith abroad, and the other at 
the evangelization of the home-land, necessarily and 
inevitably brought them both together. They first 
united in prayer, in the use of a common prayer cal- 
endar; then they united in the dissemination of in- 
formation, in the issuing of a common missionary 
magazine; finally, they united in the synodical or- 
ganizations themselves. If the story seems to be 
somewhat intricate, it is because of the swift changes 
of organization; but it has issued in the large and 


302 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


kindly simplicity of a single society engaged in a work 
for missions which is as wide as the church itself. 

It was at the joint annual meeting of the two 
synodical societies in Glendale, held in connection 
with the meeting of Synod on July 26, 1924, that 
both voted themselves out of existence; and then that 
the same good women who had constituted the mem- 
berships of these two societies forthwith organized 
themselves into The Women’s Synodical Society for 
Missions. On July 30 a constitution was adopted, 
and on July 31 officers were elected. Upon this 
group of officers now devolved the responsibility of 
caring for the well-being of all the presbyterial so- 
cieties which, in turn, pass down to the local societies 
in the several churches whatever of knowledge, in- 
spiration and devotion they have received in the 
vantage ground of their outlook upon the world. The 
oficers elected for the first year of the reorganiza- 
tion were as follows: President, Miss Margery Schu- 
berth, of Pasadena; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. W. F. 
Geldert, of San Francisco, Mrs. H. Z. Austin, of 
Fresno, Mrs. C. P. Hessel, of Arcata; Recording 
Secretary, Mrs. Mary Crane Rider, of Glendale; 
Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. David Thomas, of 
Los Angeles; Secretary of Literature, Mrs. C. A. 
Poage, of Colusa; Secretary of Missionary Educa- 
tion, Mrs. R. W. Jones, of Orange; Young People’s 
Secretary, Mrs. Earl Haney, of Richmond; Secretary 
of Westminster Guilds, Mrs. Arthur Hicks, of Han- 
ford; Secretary of Children’s Work, Mrs. E. L. Mc- 
Cartney, of Los Angeles; Secretary of National Mis- 
sions and Overseas Sewing, Mrs. H. M. Campbell, 
of San Jose; Secretary of Stewardship, Mrs. R. 
W. Cleland, of Los Angeles; Secretary of Associate 
Membership, Miss Ruth Harris, of Redlands; 








PACIEIGIDISTRICTAEREADERS 


Mrs. FRANCIS EDSALL BANCROFT Mrs. CHARLES W. WILLIAMS 
Sec’y Board of National Missions Sec’y Board of Foreign Missions 


Miss MARGERY M. SCHUBERTH 


President California Synodical Society for Missions 





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THE WorkK OF THE WOMEN 303 


Treasurer of Contingent Fund, Mrs. D. I. Cone, 
of Berkeley. 

The very recital of the names of these officers dis- 
closes how varied, how highly organized and how 
widely spread, is the work of this new Synodical 
Society, to which has been entrusted the responsibil- 
ities for both home and foreign fields. 

In a chapter on women’s work we should make 
some reference to the Presbyterian Orphanage and 
Farm, or “The Home,” as they now prefer to call 
it, at San Anselmo. 

Six ladies met on February 26, 1895, to organize 
and plan this new enterprise on behalf of homeless 
children, Mrs. P. D. Browne being the prime mover. 
In May, 1895, Articles of Incorporation were drawn 
and adopted. Soon the institution had twenty acres 
of land in San Anselmo, a dormitory and a school. 
Almost from the beginning it sheltered 100 to 120 
children. : NANG 

The orphan who has lost both parents is not the 
saddest of all orphans. He or she is most pitiable 
whose parents are divorced and perhaps both mar- 
ried again, and have no use for their boy or girl. 
In San Anselmo there are orphans of every kind, and 
it is a blessed refuge for little children who would 
otherwise be helpless and hopeless in a cruel world. 
It has been ministered to by noble women, both in its 
Board of Directors and in its matrons, some of 
whom, if they had lived in the middle ages, could 
scarcely have escaped canonization. We can name 
On Vad owm Ot tics Vits th ea browne, nthe 
founder, who was for some years President of the 
Board; Mrs. Robert Dollar; Mrs. L. A. Kelly; Miss 
Louisiana Foster, who was president during the 
years when a distressing series of fires occurred, and 


304. "THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


under whose administration the present beautiful 
buildings were erected; Mrs. Rex Shearer, the pres- 
ent president; Mrs. John Dollar, Mrs. Almer New- 
hall, and Mrs. Raymond H. Thayer. There are 
many others. 

For years the superintendents were Presbyterian 
ministers, outstanding among whom, as an admin- 
istrator and friend of the children, was the Rev- 
erend Andrew Beatty, D.D., who gave here more 
than ten years of ministry. Miss Helen Whitney, a 
competent young woman and a trained social worker, 
is now the superintendent. 

The annual Grape Festival held for the benefit of 
the orphanage on the beautiful grounds of Mr. and 
Mrs. William Kent, in Kentfield, has become one of 
the famous institutions of Northern California and is 
participated in by thousands of people of all denom- 
inations. 

Mr. Robert Dollar has been the largest single 
benefactor of this worthy institution. 

We have said nothing about the Ladies’ Aid, and 
similar organizations, which in almost every church 
furnish the carpets, and the pulpit furniture, and the 
flowers, and the social rooms, and look after the 
janitor service, even when they do not do it them- 
selves. In most of our churches the deacon’s work 
is done by deaconesses, official and unofficial. 

And today there are open to women many de- 
partments of professional service in the church. 
They are secretaries, and stenographers, and pas- 
tors’ assistants, and superintendents of religious edu- 
cation, and specialists in work for girls, and mission 
workers. ‘There is simply no limit to the possibili- 
ties of feminine usefulness in the present day work 
of the church, 


CHAPTER XVI 
SPANISH WORK IN CALIFORNIA 
to eee. American rule there has always been a 


Spanish work in California, because there was 
a Spanish population before there was an American. 
And the American ministers have never been indiffer- 
ent to the needs of the Spanish-speaking populations 
whom they have found intermingled with their own 
people. So far as we know the earliest Presbyterian 
Sabbath-School established in the state was that 
opened by Dr. Willey in the presidio of Monterey 
chiefly for the benefit of Mexican children. At a 
later period the cure of the souls of the inrushing 
American settlers so taxed the powers of the mis- 
sionaries that they had but little time or opportunity 
to pay attention to the Spanish population. But 
even then there was an occasional minister with an 
understanding of the Spanish tongue who wrought 
in their behalf. Such a man was the Reverend Wil- 
liam C. Mosher, who after he had served the Pasa- 
dena Church for the first two years of its history 
withdrew from the pastorate to do the work of a 
colporteur among the Spanish-speaking people. 
Many times he visited every hamlet of the six South- 
ern counties, distributing thousands of Christian 
books, and tracts, and Sabbath-School papers, and 
preaching constantly. 
In the minutes of the presbyteries we read occa- 
305 


306 THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


sionally of the establishment of churches. There 
was a Spanish church organized at Anaheim on Sep- 
tember 2, 1882, with ten members, but in 1887 it 
was dissolved and its membership was added to that 
of the First Church of Anaheim. And at the meet- 
ing of the presbytery of San Francisco held on No- 
vember 12, 1883, a committee was appointed to 
organize a Spanish Church, “if the way be clear.” 
In the minutes of April 22, 1883, there is a refer- 
ence to the recent organization of this church. But 
it disappeared almost immediately from the roll of 
presbytery. 

We now come to a period of more definite devel- 
opment of the Spanish work. There are three names 
that stand out in the beginnings in Los Angeles, and 
they are the Reverend Carlos Bransby, Miss Ida 
Boone and the Reverend Antonio Diaz. The Rev- 
erend Carlos Bransby was a man of personality fine 
and rare. His father was an Englishman and his 
mother a Colombian. He had the heritage of the 
spirit of adventure of the pioneering Englishman, 
and the easy aftability in speech and address of the 
Spanish gentility. Before coming to California he 
had served the Foreign Board in Bogota. He started 
a mission at Los Olivos, and preached regularly 
every Sabbath at the school for Mexican girls which 
had been opened by Miss Boone in Second Street, 
Los Angeles. Dr. Bransby’s missionary labors in 
the south approximately covered the years 1884 to 
1888. He was assisted by an elderly gentleman, Mr. 
Antonio Diaz, whom the presbytery of Los Angeles 
ordained on April 6, 1884. He had been born of 
Roman Catholic parents near the City of Mexico 
in 1822, was converted in 1862, and was led by cir- 


SPANISH WorK IN CALIFORNIA 307 


cumstances into Los Angeles early in the eighties. 
He was an eloquent man. He died on October 8, 
1895, and left behind a memory of whole-hearted 
consecration in the service of his Lord. Most of 
his work was done in places where organization was 
impossible in his day. Here is a typical story from 
his life which the author has found in an old manu- 
script. 

In 1883 a man drove his team into Los Angeles 
with a load of wood which he intended to sell in 
order to enjoy a carousal. He arrived on a Sabbath 
morning and heard Mr. Diaz preaching on the street 
to a group of Spanish-speaking people. He tied his 
team and came near to listen. At the close of the 
service the minister spoke to Facundo Ayon and in- 
vited him to his house. Here the stranger remained 
several days, and when he returned to his home in 
Azusa he was not only sober but converted to Christ. 
He bore the gospel to his neighbors and became the 
first elder of the Azusa Spanish Church, when it was 
organized on August 11, 1889. When he died even 
the Roman Catholics showed their respect for him by 
attending his funeral. 

This reference to Azusa brings us to the next out- 
standing name in the history of Spanish work, the 
Reverend A. Moss Merwin, D.D., who having been 
a missionary in Chile, and having had to resign on 
account of ill-health, became, in 1888, the first super- 
intendent of Mexican work in Southern California. 
He preached his first sermon at the Forsythe School, 
where Miss Boone presided, on March 18,1888. He 
was an able man, in the full maturity of his powers 
and he gave himself for twenty years to the evan- 
gelization of the Mexican population in Southern 


308 THe PrespyTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


California. He published the first Spanish evangeli- 
cal paper of the state, which soon became strongly 
influential. 

On September 9, 1888, under the leadership of 
Dr. Merwin, the First Spanish Church was organ- 
ized with five members. For a time its services were 
held in a school house on Second Street, and then 
in any available room for some ten years. A lot 
and building on Avila Street were purchased, this 
being the first property owned as a Mexican Presby- 
terian Church in Los Angeles. Later this property 
was sold, and the church now owns a good building 
on Daly Street. 

Shortly after organizing the Los Angeles Church 
Dr. Merwin opened missions at Los Nietos, San 
Gabriel, Irwindale and San Bernardino. Occasional 
services were had at various other points. The work 
at Los Nietos died out, but at each of the other three 
places a strong church grew up. At San Gabriel he 
found a Spanish family, living under the shadow of 
the mission, who had been converted by reading the 
Bible. ‘This church has now a membership of 152, 
and a Sabbath-School of 200. The property con- 
sists of a Church, a manse and a parish house. For 
some time the Home Board aided this work, but now 
it is self-supporting. At San Bernardino a building 
costing $22,000 has just been completed. 

On February 28, 1904, one year before he died, 
Dr. Merwin organized a Spanish Church at San 
Diego. Earlier he had visited the field and seen the 
opportunity, but money for the opening of a mission 
there was not available. He told the story to his 
people in Los Angeles, and Mr. Juan B. Guerrero, 
then an elder, volunteered to go to San Diego and 


SPANISH WorK IN CALIFORNIA 309 


open the work, if only money enough for the rent of 
a house could be supplied him. Dr. Merwin raised 
fifteen dollars a month for this purpose, but the 
good missionary had difficulty in finding in San Diego 
a house, with a room large enough to hold an audi- 
ence, which could be rented for this amount of 
money. Standing weary at a street corner late in 
the afternoon of the day of his arrival he was ac- 
costed by a friendly Mexican who offered him hospi- 
tality for the night, and out of this chance meeting 
came the first converts. San Diego Mexican Church, 
under the ministry of the Reverend Jose B. Rodri- 
guez, is now one of our most effective missions and 
its first missionary is now the Reverend Juan B. 
Guerrero, pastor of the Mexican Church of San 
Jose. 

After the death of Dr. Merwin in 1905 his daugh- 
ter, Miss Mary Merwin, who spoke Spanish as 
though it were her mother tongue, and who had been 
her father’s constant assistant, became his successor 
in the superintendency. She organized the missions 
at Redlands and Riverside. In 1912 she resigned. 

The Home Board now inaugurated a new policy 
in its Spanish work. This was necessary, for now 
the floods of Mexican immigrants began to pour in 
unprecedented numbers over the southern borders 
of the boundary states. Mexican work was being 
done in several different Synods and presbyteries, but 
without coordination in a unified plan. The Board 
now appointed the Reverend Robert McLean, D.D., 
as superintendent of all this work in the five south- 
eastern states. Dr. McLean had had wide expert- 
ence in Chile, Oregon and Porto Rico, before taking 
up this work, and he had a statesmanlike grasp of 


310 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


its problems. During his period of administration 
from 1913 to 1918 he organized churches at stra- 
tegic centers along the border, and inland, which 
would get in touch with the Mexican immigrant im- 
mediately upon his entrance into the United States. 
One of these was the Church of the Divine Savior 
in Los Angeles, which has now a membership of 325, 
and a Sunday School of 400, housed in a substantial 
property. The Reverend Jose Falcon, a protégé of 
Miss Merwin, became the inspiring pastor of this 
church. He died suddenly on June 9, 1924, and his 
son, Hubert Falcon, who is now stated supply, is 
splendidly carrying forward his father’s work. 

Dr. McLean, the father, resigned in 1918, and Dr. 
Robert N. McLean, the son, was appointed in his 
place, which he is filling in a manner worthy of the 
succession. His administrative duties have been more 
clearly defined in recent years, to the benefit of the 
work. New churches have been organized at Mon- 
rovia, LaVerne, Upland, Otay, Brawley, Belvedere 
Park, San Jose and San Francisco. This last named 
city has now a Spanish Church which promises to 
stay, the Church of the Good Shepherd, housed in a 
reconditioned Lutheran Church, and ministered to by 
the Rev. Charles A. Thomson. A mission has also 
been opened in Visalia and work for the Portuguese 
begun at San Leandro. There are now in California 
17 Spanish churches, 7 missions, 1277 members, and 
1661 Sunday School scholars. 

One of the interesting developments of recent 
years is the organizing of Spanish departments in 
some of the American Churches. Bethesda Church, 
in Los Angeles, is the best example. Mexicans and 
Americans have one elder for each twenty-five mem- 





SPANISH WorK IN CALIFORNIA 311 


bers. At present there are nine elders, of whom 
five are Americans and four Mexicans. The Ameri- 
cans use the auditorium in the morning, and the 
Mexicans at night. As we have already seen, the 
Reverend Christopher H. Gaskell is minister, and 
the Reverend Jose Venecia, formerly of El Paso, is 
pastor of the Mexican members. 

In dealing with women’s work we made mention 
of the Forsythe School, but any treatment of Span- 
ish work in the state would be incomplete without 
some further reference. Since its foundation the 
school has moved twice and now occupies a bright 
and attractive home at 507 Evergreen Avenue, Los 
Angeles. It has grown steadily in numbers and in- 
fluence. It has trained many Mexican girls in the 
finest things of American life and returned them to 
their homes to be leaders among their own people. 
There are some seventy-five girls living in the home, 
and the influence of their training extends widely 
throughout the Mexican population. 

The Portuguese Church in San Leandro deserves 
another word. It has been three times attempted: 
in 1891, by the Reverend Joseph F.. Cherry; in 1910, 
by the Reverend James T. Houston; and, in 1925, 
by the Reverend Henry J. McCall. Both of the last 
named were, previous to their arrival in Northern 
California, missionaries to Brazil. It is said that 
there are some 100,000 Portuguese living in Cali- 
fornia, perhaps one-third of whom are in the Bay 
Region. 


CHAPTER XVII 
THE ORIENT IN CALIFORNIA 
(OEE ESE immigration through the port of San 


Francisco began in 1846, when three arrived. 
But long before this time, there had been an ex- 
tensive trade carried in American ships, between the 
coast of California and China. With the discovery 
of gold, and the new opportunities of labor, vast 
numbers of Chinese coolies sailed in through the 
Golden Gate. In their new place of habitation they 
were not highly esteemed, but were wanted simply 
as hewers of wood and drawers of water. White 
men were miners; yellow men were not allowed to 
mine, except in abandoned diggings. But there were 
Christians who cared for them. 

The first public meeting of Chinese was convened 
on October 20, 1850, at the call of Mr. John W. 
Geary, Mayor of San Francisco, Mr. F. A. Wool- 
worth, Acting Chinese Consul, and the Rev. Albert 
Williams, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, and 
at this time there were distributed among them tracts 
and religious books in their own language. ‘The first 
Chinese Christian of whom we hear in the United 
States was a certain Ah Chick, who had been bap- 
tized in Hong Kong, and who, with three compan- 
ions, constituted a Bible Class in connection with the 
Sabbath School of First Presbyterian Church, in the 
winter of 1851-2. In response to a petition from 
the Session of this church the Board of Foreign Mis- 

312 








THE ORIENT IN CALIFORNIA 313 


sions in October, 1853, appointed the Reverend Wil- 
liam Speer, D.D., as the first missionary to the 
Chinese on the Pacific Coast. He organized the 
first Chinese Church in San Francisco on November 
6, 1853, with eleven members. By the close of this 
year the first mission building was erected and occu- 
pied on the northeast corner of Sacramento and 
Stockton Streets. 

After four years of faithful service, Dr. Speer was 
obliged to relinquish the work for reasons of health, 
and was succeeded by the Reverend A. W. Loomis, 
D.D., afterwards agent of the American Bible So- 
ciety in Japan. Other superintendents in the order 
of their appointment were the Reverends A. J. Kerr, 
Dee Vi Gondityi Dips) ) eH Eauchliny D:Ds 
and Mrs. J. H. Laughlin. 

In 1882 the old First Presbyterian Church, lo- 
cated at 911 Stockton Street, about a block from 
the original site of the Chinese mission, was pur- 
chased by the Foreign Board for the accommodation 
of this expanding work. ‘This building went down in 
the fire of 1906, and was replaced in 1908 by the 
present one. ‘This church has constantly worked in 
intimate cooperation with the Presbyterian Mission 
Home. Today it has a membership of 221, under 
the pastorate of the Reverend Tse Kei Yuan, a de- 
vout and fearless Chinese Christian leader. 

In 1870 it was estimated by Dr. Condit that there 
were 150,000 Chinese in America, most of whom 
were in California and 30,000 of whom were in San 
Francisco. Owing to our immigration laws the num- 
bers are smaller today. ‘There are probably 65,000 
in California; but the number of women and organ- 
ized families is vastly greater, all of which means 
that we have a permanent Chinese population, which 


314 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


by natural increase is growing larger every year. 
Some of them are rich and highly educated. All of 
them are eager for the material advantages of west- 
ern civilization. Most of them are alien in thought 
and feeling from Christianity. Among the Chinese 
of the Pacific Coast there are eighteen Tongs, which 
are organizations possessing an almost absolute con- 
trol over the life of their members. The Tong gun- 
man who is ordered to kill must kill, or be killed; 
and no other Tong member will reveal his secret. 
The loyalty of the Tong organization baffles the skill 
of the best detectives of the American police. And 
throughout the history of underground Chinatown 
young girls have been bought and sold for sums 
ranging from $3000 to $5000 for the purpose of 
vice. We have already referred to the heroic work 
of Miss Donaldina Cameron in rescuing and caring 
for these girls. 

In the order of the foundation of the Chinese 
missions Los Angeles is second, though the organi- 
zation of the church there came later than the or- 
ganization of the Oakland church. ‘The Reverend 
Ira M. Condit, D.D., a missionary from China in 
search of health, founded it in 1875 and organized a 
Sabbath School of eighty or ninety members in con- 
nection with the First Presbyterian Church. Many 
of these Chinese became Christians and were re- 
ceived into the church. But later it was deemed wise 
to turn over the work to the United Presbyterian 
Church, which was willing to assume responsibility 
for it. ‘he mission property was sold, but with true 
Chinese pertinacity the members refused to be trans- 
ferred, and thus a new building had to be erected and 
a new church of forty members organized. ‘This was 
done on April 2, 1884. Dr. Condit, who had in the 








THE ORIENT IN CALIFORNIA 315 


meanwhile gone north, returned to take charge of 
this church from 1885 to 1891, being followed in 
succession by the Reverends William P. Chalfant, 
J. L. Stewart and J. Franklin Kelly. Dr. Ng Poon 
Chew, a graduate of San Francisco Theological Sem- 
inary, had a rich pastorate here. He is now the 
brilliant editor of the leading San Francisco Chinese 
daily newspaper. The church now has 86 members. 

In 1877 Dr. Condit removed to Oakland from 
Los Angeles, and found already in existence a flour- 
ishing Sabbath School, and also a night school. Out 
of these there was organized on July 7, 1878, a 
Chinese church of sixteen members, thirteen of whom 
had previously been members of the First Presby- 
terian Church. At the service of organization Dr. 
Eells presided and Dr. Condit gave an address in 
Chinese. Apart from six years spent in Los Angeles 
Dr. Condit served this church for nearly forty years. 
It has now 80 members, under the pastorate of the 
Reverend Lee Yick Soo. The congregation is erect- 
ing a fine modern church building on Eighth Street, 
between Harrison and Alice Streets. 

The work on behalf of the Chinese in California 
has consequences far beyond the limits of our state 
and nation. Particularly does the coast of China 
feel the result. Many Chinese make a periodical 
visit to their kinsfolk in China and be it said to their 
credit, they always take their religion with them. 
And scores of Christian preachers in China have 
been converts in the missions of America. If only 
we had the space we could tell some thrilling stories 
of these men. 

Today the Japanese constitute the largest Asiatic 
element in California’s population. ‘There are about 
90,000 of them. They have built beautiful Buddhist 


316 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


temples all along the Pacific Coast. ‘That in Los 
Angeles cost $300,000, and the one in Fresno is 
almost as large. Moreover the Japanese in Califor- 
nia are raising great sums of money to expend upon 
Buddhist missions. ‘This is not a condition which 
Christians should regard with apathy. It consti- 
tutes a threat to Christianity even in our university 
centers. But if we would make Christians out of 
our Japanese neighbors we must behave toward them 
as though we ourselves were Christians. 

The first Japanese church was organized in an 
upper room on Golden Gate Avenue on May 16, 
1885, when seventeen members were received by cer- 
tificate and fifteen upon confession of faith, making 
thirty-two in all. In 1892 the former building of the 
Seminary at 121 Haight Street was purchased for 
the use of the Japanese mission. Later, when the 
location of the colony had shifted northwards in the 
city, the church was moved to 1516 Post Street, 
where the Reverend Shoh K. Hata now ministers. 
More than 1200 Japanese have passed through the 
membership of this church throughout its history. 
Dr. E. A. Sturge, a medical missionary, was in charge 
of the work from its beginning unto the time when 
all the Asiatic work in the United States was placed 
under the control of the Board of National Missions. 
Today this work is largely administered by the Jap- 
anese themselves, but the Board of National Mis- 
sions retains a sort of advisory relation to it in the 
person of the Reverend Philip F. Payne, who is a 
member of the staff at Presbyterian Headquarters in 
San Francisco. 

The Japanese Church in Salinas is “the eldest 
daughter of the San Francisco Japanese Church.” 
In 1898 the San Jose Presbytery received under its 





THE ORIENT IN CALIFORNIA 317 


care this self-supporting mission, which later was 
regularly organized as a Presbyterian Church. It 
has now fifty-six members under the ministry of the 
Reverend Renpei Watanabe. The Japanese Church 
in Watsonville, under the ministry of the Reverend 
Toyozo Takayama, has eighty members. But it 
should be noted in connection with all the Japanese 
churches that the body of adherents outnumbers that 
of the members. 

There are Japanese churches in almost all the 
large cities of California, though it is difficult to 
tabulate these, because most of them are federated 
churches, belonging to more than one denomination. 
Altogether work for Japanese is maintained at forty 
places in northern California and at thirty-four in 
southern California, comprising churches, schools, 
homes and various other forms of religious and so- 
cial activity. In spite of the attractive power of 
Buddhism, and its appeal as a national cult, the Jap- 
anese are turning to Christianity. Perhaps one should 
add in spite also of the obstacles thrown in their 
way by white men, nominally Christian. In Long 
Beach certain Americans did everything in their 
power to prevent the federated Japanese church 
from obtaining a permit to erect a building on a suit- 
able location. Nevertheless there are churches like 
the Japanese Church of Los Angeles with more than 
300 members. ‘This church is typical and should re- 
ceive more extended mention. The Presbyterian mis- 
sion was started in Los Angeles in 1902, and had a 
steady growth under the care of Reverend K. Hagi- 
wara. The work was educational and evangelistic. 
A church of forty-nine members was organized on 
November 12, 1905, and the Reverend Joseph K. 
Inazawa was chosen pastor, under whom the congre- 


318 ‘THe PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


gation went forward rapidly. The Reverend Giichi 
Tanaka is now minister. These churches are giving 
relatively more largely than most of our other 
churches. All Japanese church aim at reaching self- 
support as soon as possible. 

Here is a typical incident. In, and near, Monterey 
there is a considerable community of Japanese, with 
a small church and a consecrated minister, the Rev- 
erend E. Kawamorita, who is intellectually and spir- 
itually a man of power. ‘They dedicated a new 
church on October 24, 1926, at a cost of $15,000, 
the greater part of which was raised among the Jap- 
anese themselves. Six ordinary fishermen subscribed 
their entire catch of tuna for the season, with a 
guarantee that it would yield at least $2000. Most 
of the disciples of Jesus were fishermen, and when 
Jesus called Peter, he took his fishing-boat also. 

The Korean population, which was once much 
larger, now numbers only some 2000 in the United 
States, and these are generally Christians and are 
cared for by the Methodist and Presbyterian 
churches. ‘There is a Korean church in Dinuba. 

Before closing this chapter one should mention the 
Armenian Church of Fresno, which was organized 
on July 25, 1897, with forty members, and now has 
about 200. An Armenian church was organized at 
Yettem, with forty-five members on April 2, 1g1t. 
Owing to removals of the Armenian population, it 
has now twenty-nine. Several other Armenian 
churches, more or less organized, have existed in the 
Synod. But the Armenian readily assimilates with 
the native American and is often found in the ordi- 
nary Protestant Church. 

There is an Assyrian church at Turlock, with 
eighty-five members. 





CHAPTER XVIII 
PRESBYTERIANS IN NEVADA 
oT PIIESE have been two periods when the settle- 


ment and development of the land now cov- 
ered by the State of Nevada went forward with a 
leap, the one beginning about the year 1860, and 
the other about the year 1900. We will deal with 
each of these in the course of this chapter. 

In 1859 the discovery of the famous Comstock 
Lode in Western Nevada brought a rush of new 
population, led to the building of Virginia City, a 
prosperous community located on a mountain side 
where human beings under ordinary circumstances 
would not have thought of living, and eventually 
brought into existence a new State. For the years 
1862-8 the average annual production was more 
than $11,000,000. Another time of high produc- 
tivity came in the years 1873-8, after the opening in 
the Comstock Lode of the Great Bonanza mine, of 
which for a time the annual yield was more than 
$26,000,000. The discovery of 1859 came just 
about the time when many of the miners in Cali- 
fornia were thinking that mining here was nearly 
ended, and thus there was a rush to the new fields of 
Nevada. The early sixties saw a mushroom popula- 
tion moved from the one side of the Sierra to the 
other. 

319 


320 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


The Reverend W. W. Brier, who was the ex- 
ploring agent of the New School Assembly's Com- 
mittee on Home Missions, visited the Territory of 
Nevada in his official capacity in the spring of 1861. 
He preached in Carson City and called a meeting 
at the Stone School House for the evening of May 
19, in order to appoint a Board of Trustees, secure 
a building site and erect a church. At this meeting 
subscriptions were secured to the amount of $5000, 
and on June 2, 1861, a petition was drawn up by 
eleven persons desiring to be organized as “The First 
Presbyterian Church of Carson City” and to be 
taken under the care of the Presbytery of Sierra 
Nevada, of the Synod of Alta California. Mr. Brier 
returned to California, reported upon his action in 
Nevada, and urged upon the Reverend A. F. White, 
of Gilroy, that he undertake this work. Mr. White 
arrived in Carson City on September 12, 1861, to be 
temporary supply of the new church, but as the sea- 
son was advanced it was thought wise to defer 
building operations to the following summer. Mr. 
White was thus the first resident minister of the Pres- 
byterian Church in Nevada. But by reason of vari- 
ous hindrances it was not until May, 1864, that the 
house of worship was completed and dedicated. An- 
other and a larger building was opened for use on 
August 16, 1896. Among the ministers who have 
served here are the Reverend James Woods, and 
his son, the Reverend James L. Woods; the Rev- 
erend F. L. Nash, under whose leadership the sec- 
ond edifice was erected, the Reverend H. H. Mc- 
Creery, whose pastorate, beginning in 1902 contin- 
ued for some twenty years, and the Reverend John 
L. Harvey, the present energetic minister. The 





PRESBYTERIANS IN NEVADA 321 


church reports sixty-three members, and is located in 
the capital city of the state. 

The second church in the territory was that at 
Virginia City, also organized by the Reverend W. 
W. Brier, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, on 
September 21, 1862, with seventeen members. The 
first pastor was the Reverend D. H. Palmer, who 
remained until late in 1864, when he was succeeded 
by the Reverend William H. Martin, under whose 
ministry a good church building was erected. He 
was succeeded in July, 1867, by the Reverend T. 
E. Taylor, who came from Oakland, and who re- 
ceived the munificent salary of $225 a month, the 
largest ever paid by the church. The highest point 
of membership was attained in 1880, when the roll 
contained 105 names. This church has had more 
than thirty pastors in its brief history, which fact is 
significant of the problems of the Nevada fields. Its 
membership is now 26. Among the matters con- 
tained in the records of the church is the question of 
removing the snow from the church sidewalk. On 
February 3, 1888, a Mr. John Cameron worked for 
twelve hours shoveling snow and at the next meeting 
of the trustees astonished them by stating that he 
did not intend to present a bill. 

During the earlier period of our church’s work 
in Nevada organizations were effected also at the 
following points: Elko, on May 26, 1870; Eureka, 
in May, 1873; Starr Valley, on June 1, 1890; La- 
moille, on October 26, 1890; and Wells, on March 
27, 1892. [here were other churches, some unor- 
ganized, some organized, which the temporary 
exigencies of the time brought into being, but which 
afterwards disappeared. Such were Gold Hill and 


322 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Silver City, in the neighborhood of Virginia City, 
organized shortly after the last-named place. 

Elko continued to live and has grown to be the 
strongest of all the churches of the Presbytery. With 
the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad it be- 
came an important junction, and in the laying out of 
the town the railroad company contributed four lots 
of sage brush land on which to build a church. 
Hither came the Reverend Henry Otis Whitney, a 
Yale graduate, inspired with the divine passion which 
makes saints and heroes, and resolved in Christ to 
found a church. Out in the wilds, at twenty-nine 
years of age, he laid down a life of the greatest 
promise. He was followed by the Reverend John 
Brown, a graduate of Glasgow University, who laid 
the foundation of a Presbyterian church on April 26, 
1870. The church was organized with nine mem- 
bers on May 6, and the new building was dedicated 
in October. The organ was presented by Henry 
Ward Beecher. ‘The young Scotch minister had come 
from a land where the church services were always 
conducted with decency and order, and it was a 
rough, fierce life into which he plunged. As late as 
1874, the Reverend H. Richardson, agent of the 
California Bible Society, said in his report: “Is 
there another state where people so generally feel as 
though they were out of God’s moral jurisdiction?” 
Young Brown heard of a man who had been a pillar 
in the church in the place from which he had come, 
and he found him at a faro bank, gambling with the 
boys. He was told that Sister R. would prove to be 
a true mother in Israel; and he found her to be a 
strange mixture, half French, and half Indian, a 
compound of good points and others not so good. 


a ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee eee ee Ulu 


PRESBYTERIANS IN NEVADA 323 


He had to make the most of such material as lay to 
his hand. A temperance lecturer who came to town 
became very drunk. And one day when a large 
crowd of people gathered in his church to listen to a 
funeral sermon a man came to the door and an- 
nounced that the lightning express was coming, and 
the whole congregation, including the pall-bearers 
and the mourners, filed out of the church and left 
the minister alone with the corpse. Returning home 
in the dark he stumbled over the body of a dead 
Chinese whom some one had shot and had not 
troubled to bury. It was a matter of no consequence. 
But this young Scot stood to his post and made a 
church. ‘Throughout its entire history it has had a 
Sabbath-School. But as late as 1887 it was re- 
ported to presbytery that there were no elders and 
no male members in the church. The total member- 
ship then was ten. In 1893 when the second edifice 
was dedicated there were forty-three; in 1913 when 
the third edifice was dedicated, there were 134; in 
1926 there were 150. ‘The church has been for- 
tunate in having had two strong pastorates of sufh- 
cient duration to enable the pastors to make a defi- 
nite impression upon the life of the community, that 
of the Reverend George H. Greenfield, Ph.D., and 
that of the present pastor the Reverend J. M. 
Swander. 

The stories here told of the early history of Elko 
exhibit conditions which were almost identical in the 
early history of every one of the churches organized 
in Nevada. 

Eureka was a populous and busy mining town 
while the mines were yielding richly. It built a good 
church and a manse, but with the decline of mining 


324 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


the church declined and today has intermittent service 
with less than a score of members. 

Starr Valley was organized in 1890, when settlers 
had discovered that at the eastern terminus of the 
Ruby range of mountains not far from Wells, where 
the snow lies heavily on the summits, there are val- 
leys which instead of containing sage brush, hold in 
their embrasure tender meadows. It is a fertile 
country. But it has never supported a large popula- 
tion. The church was organized with twelve mem- 
bers and it reports the same number still. ‘Today it 
bears the name Deeth. 

Lamoille and Wells are also overlooked by the 
Ruby mountains. The chief business of this part of 
the state is stock-raising, but Wells has also the ad- 
vantage of containing the homes of a large number 
of railroad employees. Both churches are small, but 
necessary. Both have ministered to a whole genera- 
tion of people, who, without them, would have had 
no church. 

With the exhaustion of the mines in the neighbor- 
hood of Virginia City and the consequent depletion 
of population all our churches in west central Ne- 
vada declined in strength, and many of them ceased 
to exist. Virginia City, which had once ruled as a 
queen upon a lofty throne, now sat almost desolate in 
the midst of her ruined splendor. But with the turn 
of the century in southern Nevada there were made 
marvelous new discoveries which brought into exist- 
ence new towns such as Tonopah and Goldfield al- 
most in a day. The newly found outcroppings of 
mineral were richer in silver than in gold. In 1900 
Tonopah was a desert without inhabitant and in 
1903 it had a population of 4000, with substan- 


SS ee eee ee eee! Fee 





PRESBYTERIANS IN NEVADA 325 


tial buildings built of the white granite quarried in 
the neighborhood, a product which is now a per- 
manent source of wealth. ‘There has also been great 
progress made in the irrigation of agricultural dis- 
tricts, so that a new population has been progressively 
filling the wastes. 

The Reverend Francis H. Robinson, Sabbath- 
School missionary, was for ten years a pioneer in 
every work of new settlement, calling together for 
worship the seekers of quick wealth, and gathering 
the children into Sabbath-Schools whenever organi- 
zation was possible. During this period churches 
were organized at the following points: Reno, on 
August 31, 1902; Tonopah, on September 21, 1902; 
Goldfield, on March 26, 1905; Las Vegas, on April 
9, 1905; Manhattan, on June 10, 1906; Rhyolite, on 
November 11, 1906; Columbia, on November 19, 
1906; Searchlight on January 12, 1908; East Ely, 
on May 16, 1909. 

Tonopah and Reno have both grown to be com- 
paratively strong and effective churches, exerting a 
wide influence. That at Reno is now a federated 
church in which the Congregationalists have an in- 
terest commensurate with that of the Presbyterians, 
and in which both denominations seek to minister to 
the growing body of students in the University of 
Nevada. 

There was a Cumberland church organized in 
Bishop, California, on December 23, 1900, and this, 
in anticipation of the union, was transferred by the 
presbytery of Tulare of the Cumberland Church to 
the Presbyterian Church, U.S. A., on September 3, 
1905. 

Later, on August 6, 1911, an Indian Church was 


328 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


towards unification and centralization. The church 
today is at once simpler and more highly organized 
than it was twenty years ago. Indeed it is simpler 
just because it is more highly organized. ‘There are 
no longer a multitude of minor agencies in competi- 
tion with one another, if not in actual opposition. 
But all are organized together as component parts 
of one great whole. For instance the Board of Na- 
tional Missions has oversight of all work carried on 
within the territory of the United States on behalf of 
men of every color, white, black, brown or yellow. 
And this means that every man living in the United 
States is somewhere an object of concern to the heart 
of some religious worker. The church is becoming 
increasingly insistent upon finding the particular re- 
ligious worker whose duty it shall be to seek the 
good of every particular man. But it is only a highly 
organized church which can thus reach out with the 
appropriate agent to accomplish such special tasks. 
Now to be concrete. 

Up to 1916 there was a Presbytery of Oakland 
and a Presbytery of San Francisco. ‘The Presbytery 
of Oakland was managing fairly well because it con- 
tained a considerable population of the suburban 
residents of the Bay Region, and had a good deal of 
wealth in its churches. Quite commonly when San 
Franciscans had made a considerable amount of 
money, or attained a certain degree of grace, they 
moved to Berkeley. Some of the churches of San 
Francisco which had done valiant service in the com- 
mon good at an earlier time now found themselves 
year by year depleted of some of their most effective 
workers who had decided to make their homes across 
the bay. This made the problems of San Francisco 


THe CHurcH Topay 329 


Presbytery doubly hard. From 1880 to 1905 the 
membership of this presbytery was practically at a 
standstill. During the following ten years a num- 
ber of new and small churches were established in the 
outlying sections of the city, generally in barrack-like 
structures which made no appeal to the surrounding 
populations. The newly organized churches on the 
eastern side of the bay were generally more pros- 
perous. 

At the meeting of Synod held in San Diego in 1916 
there came the union of these two presbyteries, and 
following upon this great event the appointment of 
a superintendent of church extension and the estab- 
lishment of Presbyterian Headquarters in the city 
of San Francisco. The choice of the Reverend Rob- 
ert S. Donaldson, D.D., to fill the new office of 
superintendent was a most happy one, and to him, 
more than to any other single man, is due the credit 
for the unprecedented growth of our church in the 
Bay Region in the decade of 1917-1927. ‘The re- 
sources of all the churches in the Bay Region be- 
came effective to meet the needs of all. The futile, 
struggling small churches of the fringes of population 
were gradually transformed into vital, aggressive or- 
ganizations, housed in beautiful, commodious build- 
ings, and warm with the glow of genuine Christian 
fellowship. New churches were organized when these 
were needed. The total membership of San Fran- 
cisco Presbytery in 1916 was 8536, in 1926 it was 
Lees To 

And the growth in the attendance at the Sabbath- 
Schools, in the contributions to congregational ex- 
penses and to the Boards, has increased proportion- 
ately. There is in every gathering of San Fran- 


J 


330 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


cisco Presbyterians a consciousness of power, an as- 
surance of ultimate victory, a freedom and a glad- 
ness, which were quite unknown a few years ago. 
It is dificult to single out for mention any of the 
leaders, where all are devoted and capable. But the 
great pulpits of Northern California are everywhere 
being splendidly sustained. Under Dr. Silsley the 
First Church of Oakland has become a church of 
more than 2500 members, and is still rapidly ad- 
vancing. Calvary Church, in San Francisco, under 
the ministry of Dr. Van Nuys, with more than 1200 
members, in a location which is second to none in its 
importance upon the Pacific Coast, is now rejoicing in 
the greatest strength of all its history. St. John’s 
of Berkeley, which still holds to the beautiful tra- 
dition of its first pastor, the Reverend George G. 
Eldredge, D.D., and is both loyal to the creed of 
Presbyterianism and also resolutely free in the pur- 
suit of truth, has now, under the strong leadership 
of the Reverend Stanley A. Hunter, D.D., grown to 
be a church of almost a thousand members, and min- 
isters largely to the body of the University of Cali- 
fornia. First Church, of San Francisco, the oldest 
of all our churches, still stands in the midst of the 
thronging traffic of the center of the city, holding 
true to its traditions of dignity and simplicity, and 
maintaining an almost unvarying strength of mem- 
bership. Its pastor, Reverend William Kirk Guthrie, 
D.D., who has been minister here for a quarter of a 
century, is now the senior Protestant pastor of the 
strong churches of the city. Trinity Church has quite 
departed from the tradition of its foundation, be- 
cause the Mission district, in which it is located, has 
completely changed its character since the fire of 





FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OAKLAND 


THE REV. FRANK M., SILsLEy, D.D., PASTOR 





THE CyHurCH ‘ToDAy 331 


1906, and is today the home of peoples of many 
tongues and racial characteristics. Under the min- 
istry of the Reverend Homer K. Pitman, D.D., and 
his like-minded son, the Reverend Paul Pitman, it 
has become a great religious center, making its ap- 
peal to all sides of the man, body, mind, soul, and 
social affections. Its membership, which had been 
declining for years until 1919, when Dr. Pitman 
came, is now again rapidly mounting as the church 
has re-adapted itself to the needs of the neighbor- 
hood. Inasmuch as the work of Trinity Center is 
distinctive it demands further notice. It employs 
every modern instrument for the purpose of reach- 
ing the people in its constituency—Boys’ Club, Men’s 
Club, Gymnasium, Dad and Lad Dinners, United 
Women’s Associations, Girls’ Federation, Sabbath- 
School, moving pictures, Daily Vacation Bible 
School, press agent, close relations with the labor 
unions. In the summer of 1926 the Daily Vacation 
Bible School enrolled no fewer than 1703 pupils 
representing thirty-nine nationalities and forty-two 
different religious faiths, and had a daily average at- 
tendance of 895. This church is a hive of industry, 
late and early, and shows conclusively what can be 
done in a good old building, left behind by a receding 
family population, in a district of lodging houses and 
foreign tenements, if only the heart of the minister 
burns with compassion. 

Howard Church, earliest of the New School 
churches, and strongest of all the churches of Synod 
at the time of the reunion of 1870, after many vicis- 
situdes of fortune, is still filling an important place 
in the life of the city, under the ministry of the Rev- 
erend: James C.Keid, ‘Ph:D, 


332 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


But where there are in the Presbytery of San 
Francisco fifty-eight good and faithful churches it 
is impossible to speak in detail of all of them. We 
can only enumerate the new churches, with the dates 
of their organization, as follows: Seventh Avenue, 
San Francisco, August 9, 1904; High Street, Oak- 
land, April 14, 1907; St. John’s Berkeley, June 3, 
£907;/ot. James:;: San Prancisco, Aprile 26,aroqos 
st. Paul’s, San Francisco, August 9, 1908; Lincoln 
Park, San Francisco, August 30, 1908; Rodeo, Janu- 
ary 22, 1909; Grace, San Francisco, November 7, 
1909; Calvary, Berkeley, February 13, 1910; Park 
Boulevard, Oakland, August 4, 1911; Northbrae, 
Berkeley, February 9, 1915; Ocean Avenue, San 
Francisco; April 15, 1920; Stepe, January 1) 19208 
Irvington, September 11, 1923; San Pablo Park, 
Berkeley, March 21, 1924; House of the Good 
Shepherd (Spanish), March 27, 1924; Portalhurst, 
San Francisco, March 7, 1926; Burlingame, June 
27 LO 20: 

In connection with the founding of new churches 
it is to be noted that today there exists a committee 
of comity consisting of representatives of all the 
Protestant churches, which has an advisory voice in 
the location of all new religious establishments. 
This aims at preventing unnecessary duplication of 
effort in promising fields as well as the neglect of 
unpromising but needy fields. Several of the 
churches mentioned above represent an effort of the 
community irrespective of the former denominational 
connections of the members. 

There is a possible peril however in the organiza- 
tion of the community church. If it is not definitely 
and explicitly attached to one of the great denomi- 


THE CHurRcCH ToDAy 333 


nations, it may tend to a comfortable and self-cen- 
tered program of local activities without any vision 
of the need of the world of sin and sorrow that lies 
beyond the narrow borders of the prosperous parish 
house. Without a world outlook the individual con- 
gregation cannot permanently do effectively even its 
local work. 

From 1920 onward, upon a program extending 
over at least ten years, three new edifices each year 
are being erected by the churches of San Francisco 
Presbytery. ‘Thus it is fitting that the headquarters 
also of the presbytery should have a new building, 
where the great activities of the church in Northern 
California can be given a permanent home. Thus in 
January, 1927, the Presbytery purchased property 
on McAllister Street, between Hyde and Larkin 
Streets, which is now converted to its new uses. In 
it is located the Presbyterian Book Store and all the 
general ofhices of the church, together with a Dvi- 
rectors’ room and an auditorium where presbytery 
can hold its meetings. 

Associated with Dr. Donaldson in his administra- 
tive duties are the Reverends Charles L. Duncan, 
and Philip F. Payne. We have already referred to 
Mr. Payne, as having an especial oversight of the 
Oriental work of eleven western states. But the 
purpose of all three administrators seems to be to 
serve wherever service can be rendered. Mr. Dun- 
can’s activities are directed chiefly along educational 
lines, with an especial regard to the young people. 
This work, particularly in our Synod, is most impor- 
tant. Generally the oldtime Californian does not 
want to be converted and quite frequently he counts 
the endeavor to convert him as a downright personal 


334 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


affront. It is indeed harder now to persuade the 
non-church goer to attend a religious service of any 
kind than it was in the pioneer days. But the chil- 
dren do not feel in this way. And if the church can 
win the rising generation of boys and girls it will 
have the men and women of the future. During the 
final decade of this history the number of children in 
the Sabbath-Schools has doubled, and the number 
gathered every summer into the Daily Vacation Bible 
Schools has become a great multitude. Besides these 
there are summer camps where recreation, Bible 
study and prayer are finely combined. And there 
are now in our Synod five Presbyterian conferences 
for young people, where the leaders receive admir- 
able normal training. 

Indirectly this new work on behalf of the young 
is having a high evangelistic value, for the parents 
are often reached through the service rendered to 
the children. ‘They are brought to the church be- 
cause the church is benefiting the little ones, and to 
Christ, because he is the head of the church. 

Presbyterian headquarters in San Francisco has 
also proved to be an administrative center for all 
the Boards of our church. We have already re- 
ferred to the concentration here of the Women’s 
Boards. The Foreign Board has here been repre- 
sented by the Reverend Weston ‘T. Johnson, D.D., 
formerly himself a missionary in Japan, who has the 
last American touch with the departing missionary, 
and the first with the arriving, whose visits and ad- 
dresses carry the inspiration of the foreign message 
to the whole Pacific Coast. Besides those already 
mentioned as being connected with the Board of Na- 
tional Missions the Reverend William O. Forbes, 





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D.D., has an oversight of Sunday School Missions 
with especial responsibility for the Nevada Presby- 
tery. The Reverend Henry M. Campbell, D.D., 
represents the Board of Christian Education, espe- 
cially in reference to Men’s Work. The Reverend 
John M. Skinner, D.D., represents the Board of 
Ministerial Relief and Sustentation in rigorously 
prosecuting the new pension plan now before the 
church. 

Recently, with the establishment of a Council of 
the General Assembly for the purpose of coordinat- 
ing the activities of all the Boards, the Reverend C. 
Franklin Ward, D.D., was appointed the representa- 
tive of this Council, with his office in San Francisco, 
from which his activities radiate throughout the 
Coast. 

Benicia Presbytery reports substantially the same 
group of churches as twenty years ago. Some of 
those nearer to San Francisco have grown stronger 
than they were and new work among the lumbermen 
with modern methods has been opened in Eel River 
Parish. It is a widely scattered presbytery, covering 
three hundred miles of the northern coast of Cali- 
fornia, and it has not yet experienced the impulse of 
the new growth of population which has come to 
most sections of the state. The outstanding advance 
made in the last decade has been the introduction of 
new methods into the work of churches already es- 
tablished, as exemplified in the rural parish of No- 
vato. 

The advance of the decade of 1916-1926 in Sac- 
ramento and Stockton has been just as great as in 
San Francisco. Both of these cities are among those 
carliest founded in the state, and both share in the 


336 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


traditions of the mining period. In the older towns 
of California it is always more difficult to achieve any 
religious end than in those more recently established, 
which are not controlled by the traditions of °49. 
Thus it is matter for rejoicing that the First Church 
of Stockton, and the Westminster and Fremont 
Churches of Sacramento, have all recently erected 
splendid new edifices. 

New churches have been founded in the past 
twenty years in Sacramento Presbytery in several 
new towns such as Fair Oaks, Orland and Weed. 

The church at Weed at the foot of the glorious 
Mount Shasta, is possessor of an elaborate com- 
munity house, in which most of the social activities 
of this region are concentrated, with excellent effect 
upon the moral character of the outlying lumber 
camps. 

In Fresno there is another headquarters where the 
Reverend David W. Montgomery, D.D., superin- 
tendent of church extension in the central counties 
of the state, has his office, with activities extending 
out into the desert, the oil fields, the cattle country, 
the raisin country and the High Sierra Mountains. 

In Los Angeles there is another concentration of 
the administrative activities of the southern counties 
in the Presbyterian Headquarters where the Rev- 
erend Guy Woodbridge Wadsworth, D.D., superin- 
tendent of Church Extension, is located. He is ably 
assisted by the Reverend Henry T. Babcock, D.D., 
who has a persuasive gift of evangelistic preaching, 
and uses his office largely for this end. Miss Rose 
Scott, a woman of grace and convictions, is a 
specialist in the work in behalf of girls. 

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THe CHurcH Topay 337 


worth’s office the progress of church extension in Los 
Angeles Presbytery has been extraordinary, possibly 
without a parallel in the history of our church. In 
1916 the presbytery contained 20,881 members, and 
in 1926, 41,476; and every other advance was pro- 
portionate. 

The most striking relative gain in any one munici- 
pality was in Long Beach, where the combined mem- 
bership of the two existing churches in 1916 was 
1163, whereas in 1926 there were four churches with 
a combined membership of 3493. 

On November 12, 1913, the Calvary Church, of 
Long Beach, was organized by the Reverend E. C. 
Jacka, D.D., a member of Los Angeles Presbytery; 
and the Reverend O. H. L. Mason, D.D., who had 
formerly been pastor of the First Church, was called 
to be minister of the new congregation. It increased 
in numbers rapidly, and in 1917, with 358 members, 
was enrolled in Los Angeles Presbytery. Dr. Mason 
resigned the pastorate in July, 1917, in order to en- 
gage in war work with the American troops in 
Siberia, in which he made a distinguished record; and 
the Reverend John G. Klene, D.D.; was called to 
succeed him. ‘The membership of this church is now 
some 700. 

The Second Church of Long Beach was organized 
on June 23, 1913, with 126 members, and in 1926, 
under the pastorate of the Reverend Henry C. Buell, 
it had 609. 

The latest to be organized of this splendid group 
of Long Beach churches is Emmanuel, which came 
into being on July 8, 1923, with forty-five members, 
and which reported to the Assembly of 1926, 202 
members. The pastor is the Reverend Charles F. 


338 THr PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


Ensign, D.D. Every one of these Long Beach 
churches gives the finest promise of life and serv- 
ice in the future. 

One of the most interesting churches of Los 
Angeles city is the Westminster Church, which should 
not be confused with the church in Westminster be- 
longing to the same Presbytery. The former is our 
colored church, which was organized on October 9, 
1904, with 21 members. In 1916 it reported 49 
members and in 1926, under the pastorate of the 
Reverend Hampton B. Hawes, it reported 222. 

In Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Fullerton, Ingle- 
wood, Monrovia, Orange, San Pedro, Santa Ana, 
Santa Monica, Wilmington and many other points, 
the growth has been almost as wonderful. 

Let us pass briefly in review some of the churches 
of recent organization which most challenge our 
notice. 

The First Church of Hollywood was organized on 
December 20, 1903, with 25 members. In January, 
1927, it had almost 2000. Its pastors have been the 
Reverend Henry A. Newell, D.D., the Reverend Gil- 
bert C. Patterson, the Reverend Marcus P. Mc- 
Clure, D.D., now of Modesto, and the Reverend 
Stewart P. MacLennan, D.D., the present pastor. 
It is a church great on every side, in the strength of 
its congregation, the breadth and beauty of its serv- 
ice of praise, its diligence in the religious education 
of its young, and its devotion to the world-wide work 
of the Kingdom of Christ. In this church will be 
found a good many people connected with the moy- 
ing picture industry, and yet it would doubtless be 
classified as a fundamentalist church. 


Within the city of Los Angeles St. Paul’s Church 











THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HOLLYWOOD 
: And its pastor, REv. STEWART EDwARD MACLENNAN 





THe CuHurcH Topay 339 


is one which has had a extraordinary recent develop- 
ment. A committee of the Presbytery of Los 
Angeles visited this field in 1910 and decided to 
recommend the beginning of work there, which was 
done. On May 1, 1910, St. Paul’s Church was organ- 
ized with 17 members and services were held in a 
store room for some two years with but little prog- 
ress; until in April, 1913, the Reverend W. G. Mills 
was called to take charge of the work. He could 
find but twelve members, and beginning with these 
as a nucleus he soon built up an effective organiza- 
tion. Dr. Mills remained for thirteen years during 
which time the congregation grew to be one of 450 
members, with a property worth about $175,000, 
and a growing field in which to expand. Dr. Brieg- 
leb, the former pastor of Westlake Church, suc- 
ceeded Dr. Mills, in October, 1926, and immediately 
St. Paul’s Church took another strong step forward. 
Wilshire Boulevard Church was organized on 
September 15, 1912, with 72 members, and by the 
last report it contained 1022. In 1926 it received 
180 new members upon confession of faith. It is a 
great church, erected at one of the crossways of the 
southern metropolis, and containing many of the 
men of light and leading of the city. It uses every 
known method of winning people to Christ, includ- 
ing motion pictures on Sunday evenings. It has had 
only two pastors throughout its history of fifteen 
years, the Reverend Gilbert C. Patterson, and the 
present pastor, the Reverend John A. Eby, D.D. 
The Eagle Rock Church was of Congregational 
origin. But when Occidental College moved into 
this district of the city it was evident that a Presby- 
terian Church would be needed there, and the locality 


340 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


did not then assure the support of two strong 
churches. With fine generosity the Los Angeles 
Association of Congregational Churches, on April 
15, 1914, dismissed their church of 85 members to 
become a Presbyterian church. Under the able min- 
istry of the Reverend William S. Middlemass, D.D., 
it has grown to be of more than six hundred 
members. 

The Westminster Church of Pasadena originated 
in the decision of the Session of Pasadena Presby- 
terian Church early in 1906 to attempt to do some- 
thing for that part of the city in which the new 
church is now located. A chapel was built on Lake 
Avenue and Claremont Drive, and the Reverend 
William E. Dodge was called to take charge of the 
new field. On June 14, 1908, this church was 
organized with 51 members. In 1909 the church 
was relocated on its present site. It has steadily 
grown since that time, until today it numbers some 
700 members and is planning the erection of a new 
building to cost $350,000. During its early years 
the church was sustained and fostered by the Pasa- 
dena Church, and came to self-support under the 
ministry of the Reverend Clarence A. Spaulding, 
D.D., in 1916. The present pastor, the Reverend 
Josiah Sibley, D.D., is a son of Immanuel Church, 
of Los Angeles, and has had a long and distinguished 
ministry upon the coast, interspersed with two pas- 
torates in the east. He was ordained to the min- 
istry by the Presbytery of Los Angeles in 1902, and 
had his first pastorate at Azusa. Since then he has 
been minister of First Church of Long Beach; First 
Church, Knoxville, Tennessee; Calvary, San Fran- 
cisco; Second Church of Chicago; and since January 
21, 1926, of Westminster, Pasadena. 


THE CHurcH Topay 341 


The newer churches of San Diego have generally 
grown to real strength and efficiency. “The Second 
Church which started in 1913 with much promise 
died out in a few years. And the East San Diego 
Church which began about the same time on Sep- 
tember 24, 1913, with 39 members has now grown 
to be one of more than three hundred. The 
Brooklyn Heights Church, which is of longer dura- 
tion, having been organized on March 17, 1912, has 
grown to similar proportions. The Calvary Church 
which has fluctuated in its strength has about one 
hundred members. 

Other churches of recent organization in the 
south are as follows: La Jolla, on October 1, 1905, 
with 10 members, and now with 122; Covina, on 
December 3, 1905, with 95 members, and now with 
221; El Centro, on January 21, with 11 members, 
and now with 170; Euclid Heights, Los Angeles, on 
March 10, 1907, with 24 members, and now with 
355, most of whom have been enlisted from indus- 
trial, foreign populations by two brothers in the 
ministry, the Reverend Lawrence L. Cross, after- 
wards of Berkeley, and his successor, the Reverend 
Frank M. Cross, the present pastor; Garvalia, San 
Gabriel, on March 22, 1908, with 45 members, and 
now, under the ministry of the Reverend James F. 
Nelson, with more than 200; Mount Washington, 
on May 2, 1909, with 34 members, and now with 
90; Van Nuys, on April 17, 1912, with 44 members, 
which under the pastorate of the Reverend David 
Farquharson in 1926 amounted to 268; Placentia, 
on August 4, 1912, with 31 members, and in 1926 
with 126;Grace, Los Angeles, on June 24, 1912, with 
25 members, and now with 135; West Hollywood 
on January 13, 1913, with 54 members and now 


342 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


with 236; South Hollywood, on November 9, 1913, 
with 35 members, and now with 313; Lincoln Ave- 
nue, Pasadena, on April 5, 1914, with 100 mem- 
bers, and in 1926 with 348; Southwest, Los Angeles, 
on April 5, 1914, with 125 members, and in 1926 
with 275; Arcadia, on May 10, 1914, with 25 mem- 
bers, which increased to 260; Belvedere, Los 
Angeles, on November 7, 1915, with 18 members, 
which in 1926 became 144; Lomita, on October 2, 
1917, with 48 members, which are now 109; 
Laguna Beach, on December 2, 1917, with 16 mem- 
bers, now with 72; Palmdale, on May 4, 1919, with 
49 members, now with 60; San Juan Capristrano, 
organization completed on January 13, 1920, with 
48 members, which have increased to 78. Of still 
more recent organization is Beverly Hills, which 
after six years of existence under the pastoral super- 
vision of the Reverend Robert M. Donaldson, D.D.., 
has almost two hundred members, and a beautiful 
church, located in superb surroundings. South Gate 
has grown in the same time to be a substantial 
church of 130 members. None of the Mexican or 
Japanese churches are named here, nor any of the 
churches which have been dealt with in other con- 
nections. One thing that will strike the reader is the 
fact that the number of members with which most 
of the churches are started in the recent years is much 
larger than that with which the pioneer churches 
began. In many ways the struggles of the present 
are not so severe as were those of the earlier genera- 
tion, even when we are launching a new church. We 
are all alike the heirs of the faith and endurance of 
the fathers; they have labored, and we have entered 
into their labors. God grant that this great and 





A COTTAGE IN MONTA VISTA GROVE 


THE CHuRCH Topay 343 


precious inheritance may not be impaired through 
any use we may make of it today, but that rather it 
may be enriched through our experience and trans- 
mitted to the generations that shall come after us. 

But before we close there are one or two other 
matters to claim our attention. 

Among the new activities of our church in the 
south should be mentioned the Monte Vista Home 
for Ministers which, under the energetic leadership 
of Mr. James Marwick, elder of Santa Barbara, was 
begun in 1922. This home consists of a fine group 
of bungalows built in a beautiful grove near Pasa- 
dena, where aged ministers and their wives can 
find shelter and comfort in the midst of congenial and 
dignified surroundings. In the fall of 1926 the 
Reverend Augustus B. Pritchard, D.D. became 
superintendent of this home, and under his adminis- 
tration the resources of the corporation have been 
greatly enlarged. No minister who knows that such 
a happy haven of rest awaits his declining years need 
view with apprehension the day when he must with- 
draw from active duty. Mr. David Black, an elder 
of the Pasadena Church, has succeeded Mr. Mar- 
wick in the chairmanship of Synod’s committee which 
has this gracious work in hand. 

In this history there has been no mention made 
of the several attempts on the part of the church to 
organize missions to the Jews living in our midst. 
These have been generally well conceived and kindly 
in their approach; but they have accomplished little. 
The Jew does not want to be regarded as a special 
object of evangelism. He wants to be considered a 
normal person in the community, and though he 
sometimes sets himself apart by some of his racial 


344 “THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


and religious peculiarities he does not want Chris- 
tians to set him apart by making him a peculiar object 
of interest. When he becomes a Christian it is 
generally through the agency of one of the regular 
churches; and as a matter of fact there are not a 
few Jews in the membership of our churches on the 
coast and some are even in the eldership. It may be 
that now in our American life we are approaching 
the time when larger numbers of the people of the 
old covenant will gladly enter the service of the 
Christian’s Christ. 

In the sphere of moral reform Presbyterianism 
has made a great contribution to the success of the 
temperance cause in California in giving to the 
leadership of the Anti-Saloon League in successive 
periods the Reverends Ervin $. Chapman, D.D., 
LL.D., Daniel McG. Gandier, D.D., and Samuel 
T. Montgomery, D.D., all of whom have left im- 
portant pastorates to respond to the most urgent call 
of public morality of the generation. It is not too 
much to say that there are no three men of the 
past half century in California to whom the cause 
of prohibition owes a larger debt. And to these 
we add the name of an elder of the First Church of 
San Jose, the Honorable T. M. Wright, proponent 
of the Wright Act of the California legislature. 

The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, while un- 
denominational in its personnel and in the scope of 
its teaching, has nevertheless been largely the product 
of Presbyterian piety. Its chief benefactor was 
Lyman Stewart, an elder of Immanuel Church, and 
many of its teachers and students have been Presby- 
terians; and both of its responsible leaders today, 


the Reverend Rueben A. Torrey, D.D., and the Rev- 





THe CHurcH Topay 345 


erend John Murdock MaclInnes, Ph.D., Litt. D., are 
members of the Presbytery of Los Angeles. 

Now to bring our story toa close. Where in 1849 
there were no churches, no ministers, and no com- 
municants, today there are 85,297 communicants en- 
rolled in 376 churches, organized in 9 presbyteries, 
and cared for by 759 ministers. In 1926 these 
churches contributed for congregational expenses 
$2,274,418, and for benevolences $768,677. And 
yet almost every one of these churches at one time 
received aid from the Board of Home Missions, or 
the Board of Church Erection, or both. Calvary 
and St. John’s, San Francisco, began as strong and 
self-supporting churches, but they emerged out of 
other churches which, in their inception, had received 
assistance. This is also true of Immanuel, Los 
Angeles, St. John’s, Berkeley, and probably some 
others. In other places the church as such received 
no aid, but its first pastor was a home missionary, 
sent out by a Home Mission Society, and supported 
by Home Mission funds. Let us look again at the 
statistics of 1926 and ask ourselves whether mis- 
sions pay. 

The story has been told. It is a story of a mighty 
work, bravely wrought. There are places where the 
heroism might have been more apparent if it had 
not been for the necessary condensation within the 
limits of space, and for the limitations of the writer. 

Our warfare is not yet accomplished. Our task 
is not complete. Population is still pouring over our 
borders more tumultuously than ever _ before. 
Divorce stains the front page of every morning 
paper. Heroes cannot save the state, nor can saints 
save the church, if the home life of our people is 


346 [He PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


undermined. ‘The greatest single need of our church 
today is the restoration of the family altar, with its 
piety and purity, its faith and love. We are secking, 
earnestly seeking, through all the channels of our 
modern ecclesiastical system, to reach and save the 
young. But we shall have to contend against a 
theory of life which makes no distinction between 
good and evil, between truth and falsehood, between 
purity and impurity, inasmuch as all alike are ex- 
pressions of the life of nature. We who are Christ’s 
know that there is a distinction, that righteousness 
only is right, and that the soul that sinneth shall die. 
And we know this because we know Christ. This 
Christ, our Christ, He only is the hope of the world 
in which we find ourselves at this hour; and He only, 
let us say it bravely as Christians, whatever some 
materialistic professors may say, He only is the ulti- 
mate foundation of the moral life. 

Let us come nearer to Christ, nearer to His 
wounded side, nearer to His heart of love which has 
bled for us. And as we come nearer and nearer to 
Hin, we shall certainly be brought nearer and nearer 
one to another. ‘hen shall be fulfilled His prayer 
that as the Father is in Him, and He in the Father, 
we may be one in Him; that thus the world may be- 
lieve that the Father hath sent His son, our Jesus. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX [| 


A LIST OF THE PROTESTANT SERVICES HELD 
IN CALIFORNIA PRIOR TO THE ARRIVAL 
OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS 


On June 17, 1579, Francis Drake stepped ashore on 
Drake’s Bay and one week later he held the first religious 
service in English on the Pacific Coast. Before he departed 
on July 23 he erected “a great and firm post,” to which 
he nailed a brass plate telling of his arrival, his first religious 
service and his claim to those lands in the name of his 
sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. In 1846, the Reverend Walter 
Colton, a Congregational minister, was chaplain on the 
frigate Congress, which spent the summer and fall of this 
year in the harbor of Monterey. He held service alternate 
Sundays on the frigates Congress and Savannah, and in 
1847 there is a record of a revival of religion among the 
seamen on these vessels. At this time Mr. Colton did not 
know of the presence of another Protestant minister within 
the limits of the state. He was useful to the people of the 
state in many ways. In 1846 Commander Stockton ap- 
pointed him the first alcalde of Monterey under the Ameri- 
can flag. It was the policy of the American government 
of occupation at this time to preserve as far as possible the 
forms of the Mexican administration. But manifestly, in 
the interest of justice, some of these required modification. 
It was Mr. Colton who introduced for the first time within 
the limits of the state trial by jury. 

He also established the first newspaper in California. He 
found at Monterey an old press and type that had been used 


347 


348 [He PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


by a priest for printing tracts and with these he issued The 
Californian on August 15, 1846. It was printed in 
Spanish and English and given an eager welcome by the 
community. Thus Mr. Colton has the honor of planting 
some fundamental American institutions in the new terri- 
tory. It was he who, as correspondent of the Journal of 
Commerce in New York, gave to the east its first knowledge 
of the discovery of gold in California. But so far as the 
ministrations of religion were concerned he seems to have 
confined these to the Navy and never to have held a service 
on shore. 

On July 9, 1846, Captain John B. Montgomery, of the 
Portsmouth, raised the American flag over the Presidio of 
San Francisco. He was a Presbyterian elder and a deeply 
religious man; and having no chaplain on board he himself 
conducted church service on his vessel. During his stay in 
San Francisco harbor he also conducted public religious serv- 
ices on shore. His appear to be the first Protestant serv- 
ices held on shore under the American flag in California. 
The Plaza was re-named Portsmouth Square after his vessel, 
and Montgomery Street was named after himself. ‘The 
United States ship Lexington, Lieutenant “Theodorus 
Bailey commanding, arrived in Monterey on January 28, 
1847, with a large box of the publications of the American 
Tract Society, which were distributed in the port. 

James Woods, in his ‘California Pioneer Decade.” tells 
us that the captain of a certain whaling ship invited the 
Reverend James C. Damon to preach on board his vessel 
in 1847. But who the captain was, where the harbor was, 
and who the Reverend James C. Damon was, the present 
historian has been unable to discover. 

On April 25, 1847, the Reverend William Roberts, newly 
appointed Superintendent of Missions for Oregon of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, stopped on his way to preach 
in San Francisco. On the following Sunday the Reverend 
J. H. Wilbur, his companion in travel, organized a Sunday 
School and Bible Class; but they were apparently of short 
duration. 

In October, 1847, Mr. Elihu Anthony, a local preacher 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, conducted a class in San 
Jose for two or three months. In 1848 Mr. Anthony 





APPENDICES 349 


organized a class in Santa Cruz, which subsequently grew 
into the Methodist Church of that city. ‘The same Mr. 
Anthony also preached occasionally in San Francisco dur- 
ing this year. 

In this connection it is interesting to read the following 
extract from the diary of C. S. Lyman (Cal. Hist. Soc. 
Quart., Oct. 1923). On Sunday, June 4, 1848, at San 
Jose he writes: 


Two sermons. Mr. Anthony, a.m. Mr. Hickok p.m. Evening 
a ‘Temperance Meeting. The town was so depleted by gold fever 
not many present except people from Santa Cruz on their way up. 
Mr. Hickok and Mr. Dunleavy spoke—nothing great. Mr. Hickok 
mouthed and murdered the Queen’s English horribly. The other 
was a decent speaker, but people could not help thinking how 
shockingly he beat his wife a short time since, a thing which he is 
in the habit of doing. Meeting too long. Left at 10:40. Fifteen 
signed the pledge. 


On date of July 2 he writes from a camp not far from 


Sutter’s Mill: 


Mr. Douglass (his partner) and myself went to Jones’ Camp, 
one and a half miles above, to engage in religious exercises. Most 
of the party belonging to his Camp were absent and it was con- 
cluded to appoint a religious meeting there for the next Sabbath, 


Among the many items concerning prospecting, gold wash- 
ing and cooking which this diary contains we come across 
the following of the date of July 30: 


Spent the day in camp. Mr. Matthews and son and the Rev. 
Mr. Anthony came and spent the Sabbath with us and had religious 
exercises. Agreeable and profitable. 


Thus it is evident that the Methodist local preacher per- 
formed a very real service in California in the days before 
there was any regular ministration of religion in the state. 

In October, 1848, Captain Lewis H. Thomas, of the 
English brig Laura Ann, held service on shore in San 
Francisco, using the ritual of the English Church. 


350 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


APPENDIX II 


A LIST OF THE CHURCHES ORGANIZED BY 
PROTESTANT MINISTERS IN CALIFORNIA 
PRIOR TO THE CLOSE OF 1849 


On July 6, 1849, the first Baptist Church of San Fran- 
cisco was organized by the Reverend Osgood C. Wheeler, 
the traveling companion of the Revs. Willey and Douglas. 
It was the third Protestant church to be organized within 
the state, and it built the first house of worship, which was 
used for a time by the First Presbyterian Church. ‘Three 
months after its inception this church became self-supporting. 

There were unorganized Union Services in Sacramento, 
usually held in a grove near the corner of K and Third 
Streets, from May till November, 1849, in which the fol- 
lowing ministers are known to have participated: Wiailliam 
Roberts of Oregon (see Appendix I), Isaac Owen, Grove 
Deal, M.D., all of these being Methodists; T. A. Ish, 
Cumberland Presbyterian; S. V. Blakeslee, Congrega- 
tionalist; John Cook, Baptist; Mr. Haines (church not 
given). 

On August 19, 1849, the Reverend J. A. Benton (The 
California Pilgrim) and Professor Forrest Sheppard opened 
the first Sunday School in the city of Sacramento; and 
three weeks later the first prayer meeting. On September 
16 Mr. Benton organized the First Church of Christ (Con- 
gregational) ; and on October 26 Mr. Owen, the Methodist 
Church in Sacramento. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, 
Trinity Episcopal Church was organized on July 22, 18409, 
by the Reverend Flavel S. Mines, its first rector. First 
Methodist Episcopal Church was organized on July 27, 
1849, by the Reverend William Roberts and supplied by 
Mr. Asa White, a local preacher, until the arrival of the 
Reverend William Taylor on September 1, 1849. Their 
building was dedicated by the Reverend William Taylor 
on October 7, 1849, and was the second Protestant edifice 
erected in the state. The First Congregational Church of 
San Francisco was organized on July 29, 1849, by the Rev. 
erend Timothy Dwight Hunt. Grace Episcopal Church 





APPENDICES 351 


began its services in October, 1849, under the rectorship of 
the Reverend J. L. Ver Mehr, and was organized into a 
parish on April 28, 1850. 

The Sixth Sree Methodist Episcopal Church of Sacra- 
mento was organized on October 28, 1849, by the Reverend 
Isaac Owen, who preached in Stockton also, and on March 
17, 1850, organized the Central Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the latter city. In addition to this organized work there 
was a vast amount of work not sufficiently advanced to be 
given the definite form of a church. This latter work, con- 
ducted largely in mining camps and in canyons of the moun- 
tains, was even more important than the organized. 


APPENDIX III 


In the issue of The Pacific of August 29, 1851, is published 
the following list of ministers and churches of various de- 
nominations then in California. It comprises so much of 
the religious history of the churches in that early day, that 
it is here presented for more general information, and for 
such preservation as this history may secure to it. 


SAN FRANCISCO 


First Congregational Church, corner Jackson and Virginia Sts.; T. 
Dwight Hunt, pastor. 

First Presbyterian Church; holds service in the Superior Court 
Room, St. Francis Hotel, Clay St.; Rev. Albert Williams, 
pastor. 

Howard Street Church, Happy Valley; S. H. Willey, pastor. 

First Baptist Church, Washington St.; O. C. Wheeler, pastor. 

Methodist Episcopal Church; Washington St.; Wm. Taylor, pastor. 

Grace Church, Powell St.; O. L. Ver Mehr, rector. 

Roman Catholic Church, Vallejo St. 

Spring Valley Chapel, Preaching by Clergymen of different de- 
nominations, 


SACRAMENTO 


“First Church of Christ”; J. A. Benton, pastor. 

M. E. Church, Seventh St., between L and M; M. C. Briggs, pastor. 

First Baptist Church, Seventh St. corner Ios "John Penman, pastor. 

M. E. Church for colored race; Barney Fletcher, pastor. 

Roman Catholic Church, Seventh St., corner K; J. Ingaldsley, 
pastor. 


352 ‘THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 


SAN JOSE 


Presbyterian Church; Isaac H. Brayton, pastor. 
M. E. Church; Chas. Maclay, pastor. 
Baptist Church; L. O. Grenell, pastor. 


SANTA CLARA 
Methodist Church. Baptist Church. 


BENICIA 


Presbyterian Church; Sylvester Woodbridge, pastor. 


MARYSVILLE 


Presbyterian Church; W. W. Brier, pastor. 
Methodist Church; J. W. Brier, pastor. 


NEVADA CITY 


Congregational Church; J. H. Warren, pastor. 


STOCKTON 


Presbyterian Church; James Woods, pastor. 
M. E. Church; Wm. Morrow, pastor. 


SONORA 
M. E. Church, South; Cyprian Gridley, pastor. 


SANTA CRUZ 
M. E. Church; D. A. Dryden, pastor. 
Congregational Church, Y. H. Hinds, pastor. 
SONOMA CIRCUIT 
James Corwin, Alex. McLean, M. E. Church. 


EL DorApDo CIRCUIT 


A. S. L. Bateman, pastor. 





INDEX 


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INDEX 


Academies, 249-50 

Agriculture, 111, 250 

Alameda, 119 

Alexander, William, 250, 271, 
273 

Alhambra, 220 

Alta California, Synod of (N. 
S.), 153 

American Bible Society, 56 

Anaheim, 147-8 

Anderson, W. C., 260 

“Annals of San Francisco,” 54 

Anthony, Elihu, 348 

Anti-Saloon League, 344 

Anza, Juan Bautista de, 14 

Arcata, 99 

Armenian Churches, 318 

Arroyo Grande, 232 

Assyrian Church, 318 

Avery, H. R., 118 

Ayala, Juan Manuel de, 15 

Azusa, 220 


Babb, C. E., 200, 216 

Baer, John Willis, 266-7 
Baker, William E., 96 
Bakersfield, 197 

Bell, Hugh Henry, 196, 285 
Bell, Samuel B., 79, 86, 261 
Benicia, 40 

Benicia, Presbytery of, 73, 154, 


187-90, 335 
Berkeley, First, 175-8 
Knox, 185 


St. John’s, 179, 327, 330 
Westminster, 175-6 
Bible Institute, 240, 344 
Bidwell, General John, 23, 123, 


264. 
Billings, Frederick, 44, 166, 249, 
257 


355 


Bird, Remsen du Bois, 267, 285 
Boardman, W. E., 134-6 
Boone, Ida, 306 
Boundaries of Synod and Pres- 
byteries, 155, 157 
Boyd, Thomas, 196 
Bransby, Charles, 215, 306 
Brayton, Isaac, 59, 260 
Brayton, J. W., 108 
Briegleb, Gustav A., 245, 339 
Brier, William Wallace, 
100, 114, 116, 173, 320 
Browne, Mrs. P. D., 292, 294, 


57) 


303 
Brush, Frank S., 119 
Bucarelli, Antonio, 14 
Buel, Frederick, 56 
Burbank, 219 
Burnham, Theodore F., 4, 117 
Burrowes, George, 250, 252, 
271, 274 


Cadwallader, Mrs. Rawlins, 295 

California, Name of, 10 

California Presbytery of the 
Cumberland Church, 65 

California, Presbytery of (O. 
S.), 63, 67 

California, Synod of, 156 

Calistoga, 187 

Cameron, Donaldina, 290 

Carpenteria, 232 

Carson City, Nev., 116, 154, 320 

Cermenho, Rodriguez, 11 

Chapman, Charles E., Histo- 
rian, 7 

Chase, Martha G., 254, 299 

Chichester, W. J., 205, 206, 223 

Chico, 123 

Chinese Girls, 289-90 


356 


Chinese Missions, 71, 80, 88, 
165, 289, 298, 312-5 

City College, 250 

Civil War, 127-9 

Cleland, Robert Glass, Histo- 
rian, 7 

Cleland, Robert W., 240 

College of California, 259 

Colton, 236 

Colton, Walter, 347-8 

Columbia, 34 

Columbia, Synod of, 155 

Concord, 181 

Condit, Ira M., 95, 313-5 

Cornett, William H., 212 

Coronado, 221 

Cortez, 10 

Covelo, 188 

Coyle, Campbell, 182, 230 

Coyle, Robert, 87, 177, 240, 245 

Crescent City, 98 

Crosby, Arthur, 126, 281 

Culbertson, Margaret, 290 


Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church, 60, 65, 76, 242-5, 
252, 325 


Dana, Richard Henry, 22 
Danville, 118 

Davis, Thomas K., 133 
Davisville, 191 

Day, Thomas F., 279 
Denniston, Mrs. E. G., 292 
Diaz, Antonio, 306-7 
Dinuba, 197 

Discovery of Gold, 27-31 
Divine, Sherman L., 121 
Dobbins, H. H., 145, 157, 185, 


231 

Dollar, Robert, 286, 304 

Donaldson, R. S., 329, 333 

Douglas, John W., 51, 56, 130, 
134, 249, 257 

Drake, Sir Francis, 11, 347 

Durant, Henry, 258 


Eastman, R. S., 185 
Eaton, Mrs. A. B., 104 
Eby, John A., 339 
Edmonds, Walter E., 216 
Educational Work, 246 


INDEX 


Eells, James, 5, 87, 163, 262, 275 
E] Cajon, 213 

El Monte, 222 

El Montecito, 234 

Eldredge, George G., 172, 330 
Elko, Nev., 322 

Elmhurst, 185 

Elsinore, 237 

Ensenada, Lower California, 226 
Eureka, 189 


Female College of the Pacific, 
253 
First Church Building Erected, 


50 

First Church Organized, 41, 43 

First Installation, 64 

First Ordination, 56 

First Presbytery, 62 

First Protestant Services in 
California, 347 

Fillmore, 234 

Fishburn, William H., 219 

Fisher, William J., 244 

Foreign Churches, 103, 173, 174, 
206 

Forsythe Memorial School, 298 

Foster, A. W., 172, 280, 281 

Fowler, 197 

Franciscans, The, 12 

Fraser, Julia, 9, 299 

Fraser, Thomas, 9, 97, 102, 137, 
149, 215, 278 

Freeman, Robert, 211 

Fresno, 195, 336 

Fruitvale, 184 

Fullerton, 221 

Furneaux, Hugh, 88 


Glendale, 216 

Goddard, Mrs. R. B., 299 

Gold Star Missionaries, 293 

Goodwin, Mrs. Mindora Berry, 
293 

Gordon, John A., 240 

Graham, Edward, 146 

Gray, Nathaniel, 166 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of, 


21 
Guthrie, William K., 330 





INDEX 


Haight, Henry Huntley, 165, 262 
Hallenbeck, Edwin F., 144, 285 
Hamilton, Mrs. A. H., 115 
Hamilton, Wallace M., 144 
Hanford, 244 

Hays, Walter, 202 

Haywards, 184 

Hemphill, John, 126, 165, 276 
Hicks, Arthur, 186, 244, 263 
Hillis, Lewis, B., 264 
Hollenbeck, John Edward, 217 
Hollister, 198 

Hollywood, First, 338 

Home Missions Aid, 206, 345 
Horton, Thomas C., 240 

Hunt, Timothy Dwight, 38, 257 
Hunter, Stanley A., 330 
Hunter, W. A., 238, 240 


Indian Work, 71, 299, 325-6 
Inglewood, 226 


Japanese Churches 
sions, 315-8 

Jesuits, The, 12 

Jews, Missions to, 343 


Kelly, Mrs. L. A., 292 
Kendall, Henry, 142, 149 
Kennedy, Samuel J., 220 
Kerr, John Henry, 282 
King, James, 107 

Klink, Nathaniel B., 117 


La Crescenta, 219 

Lacy, Edward &., 98 

Ladies’ Protection and Relief 
Society, 104 

Landon, Warren H., 282 


Lasuen, Fermin Francisco de, 17 


Law, John K., 195 

Le Conte, Joseph, 177 

Lindsley, Aaron Ladner, 278 

Livermore, 173 

Livingstone, Samuel G., 221 

Lompoc, 234 

Long Beach, Calvary, 337 
First, 214, 222, 337 
Second, 337 

Loomis, Henry, 166 


and Mis- | 


‘McDonald, James 





357 


Los Angeles, Presbytery of, 156, 
204, 230, 238, 336 
Los Angeles, Bethany, 220 
Bethesda, 226, 310 
Boyle Heights, 217 
Beverley Hills, 327 
Central, 207, 227 
Eagle Rock, 339 
First, 50, 78, 100, 130ff, 150, 
205, 207-8 
Highland Park, 230 
Immanuel, 206, 223-5 
Knox, 229 
Recent Churches, 341-2 
Church of the Redeemer, 229 
Second, 213 
St. Paul’s, 327, 339 
Third, 215 
Vermont Ave., 229 
Welsh, 225 
West Adams 
219 
Westlake, 241, 244 
Westminster, 338 
Wilshire Boulevard, 339 
Los Gatos, 198 


(Grandview), 


Mackenzie, Robert, 55, 159, 278 

MacLennan, Stewart P., 338 

Madera, 195 

Magary, Alvin E., 183, 283 

Manses, 187 

Martin, William, 285 

Marwick, James, 343 

Marysville, 57 

Mason, O. H. L., 223 

Massey, Ernest de, 29, 32 

McAfee, Lapsley A., 177 

McClure, Marcus P., 194, 338 

S., 4, 100, 
126, 144, 186, 195 

McIntosh, John S., 283 

McLean, Robert, 309 

McLean, Robert N., 310 

McLeod, Malcolm, 211 

Mendocino, 99 

Menlo Park, 173 

Merced, 194 

Merwin, A. Moss, 221, 307-9 

Mills College, 166, 255 

Mills, Cyrus Taggart, 255 


358 


Minton, Henry Colin, 177, 279: 

Minutes of Synods and Presby- 
teries, 2 

Mobley, D. A., 117 

Modesto, 193-4 

Monrovia, 222 

Monterey, 52, 199 

Monte Vista Homes, 343 

Montgomery, Alexander, 
281 

Montgomery, David W., 336 

Montgomery, Captain John B., 


278, 


348 
Moore, T. V., 284 
Moraga, 15 
More, Warren D., 202 
Mosher, W. C., 147, 211, 305 
Mountain View, 244 


Napa, 95 
Nevada Presbytery, 154, 158 
Nevada Churches, 319-26 
Newark, 185 
Newell, James M., 9, 239 
Noble, W. B., 126, 144 
Novato, 190 
Oakland Presbytery, 157, 158, 
328 
Oakland, Brooklyn, 114 
Centennial, 182 
First, 5, 86, 156, 240, 261, 274, 
276, 291 
Union St., 180 
Welsh, 182 
Occident,) Dhes'41,9 42, "200, 
212 
Occidental Board, 288-96 
Occidental College, 264-8 
Ojai, 232 
Ontario, 238 
Orange, 208 
Oregon Presbytery, 153, 154 
Ortega, 13 
Oxnard, 235 
Oxtoby, W. H., 284 


Pacific, The, 59, 75, 109, 130, 
_. 133, 136, 35% 
Pacific Expositor, The, 5, 93, 
135 


INDEX 


Pacific, Synod of (O. S.), 68-73, 
Tesh ss 

Palo Alto, 201 

Parker, Alexander, 209 

Pasadena, Pasadena 
209-12 

Westminster, 327, 340 

Pasadena South, Calvary, 220 

Paterson, Charles G., 183, 283 

Petaluma, 188 

Phelps, Joshua L., 157 

Philips, W. A., 172 

Pierpont, James, 86, 87 

Pierson, George, 115 

Pinney, Mrs. H. B., 294 

Pioneer Churches, 76 

Pitman, Homer K., 194, 331 

Placerville, 87 

Pleasanton, 174 

Pomona, 215 

Poor, Daniel W., 273 

Portola, 13 

Portuguese Church, 311 

Potrero Hill Neighborhood 
House, 300 

Potter, Dwight E., 180 

Presbyterian Orphanage 
Farm, 303 

Presbytery, First, 51, 56 

Pritchard, A. B., 208, 228-9, 233, 


Church, 


and 


343 
Protestant Orphan Society, 104 


Railway Construction, 35, 112, 
152, 154, 166, 238 

Reception of Members, 160 

Redlands, 237 

Religious Education, 333-4 

Reno, Nev., 325 

Reunion, 151 ff. 

Richmond, 174, 186 

Riverside Presbytery, 158, 235-8 

Riverside, Calvary, 237 
Magnolia Ave., 236 

Roberts, J. B., 120, 125 

Robinson, Francis H., 325 

Rourke, George M., 223 


Sacramento Presbytery, 154, 
190-3, 336 











INDEX 


Sacramento, Fremont Park, 191, 
327, 335 
Westminster, 78, 96, 119-21, 
156, 335 
San Anselmo, 190 
San Bernardino, 149-50, 236 
San Diego, 143, 144, 341 
San Francisco, Bay of, 
I 
San Francisco, Presbytery of 
UN Spa) en 62.1256, 25750289 
Presbytery of, 154, 158, 171- 
87, 328-30 
San Francisco, Calvary, 88, 102, 
128, 144, 156, 330, 
Central, 118, 156 
First, 4, 43-9, 156, 278, 330 
Howard. 54, 154, 156, 159, 332 
Larkin St., 117 
Lebanon, 181 
Mizpah, 184 
St. John’s, 156, 171, 274 
Seventh Ave., 244 
Trinity, 125, 330 
Welch, 86 
Westminster, 122 
Recent Churches, 332 
San Francisco Theological 
Seminary, 268-286 
San Joaquin Presbytery, 
193-7, 243 
San Joaquin Valley, 122 
San Jose Presbytery, 154, 156, 
198-203 
San Jose, First, 56, 271 
Second, 200 
San Leandro, 182 
San Luis Obispo, 231 
San Pedro, 147, 213 
San Rafael, 126 
Santa Ana, 213 
Santa Barbara Presbytery, 158, 
230-5 
Santa Barbara, 144-6 
Santa Clara, 85 
Santa Cruz, 200 
Santa Maria, 232 
Santa Monica, 212 
Santa Paula, 233 
Santa Rosa, 50, 97, 102 
Schools, Grammar, 41, 44, 246-8 


12, 13, 


158, 


359 


Scott, William Anderson, 5, 89~ 
95, 102, 128, 171, 250, 270, 


273 
Scudder, Henry M., 55, 159 
Selma, 244 
Serra, Junipero, 13, 16 
Seward, Frederick D., 214, 239 
Siblev, Tosiah, 223, 340 
Silsley, Frank M., 87, 330 
Smith, Herbert Booth, 225 
Socials, 161 
Sonora, 87 
Spanish Missions, 71, 206, 238, 
248, 298, 305-11 
Spanish Missions of Catholic 
Foundation, 16 
Spaulding. Clarence A., 146, 340 
Speer, William, 88, 313 
Stanford University, 201 
State of Religion in 1852, 69 
Statistics of 1855-60, rox, 110 
1865-70, 153, 156 
Cumberland Church, 243 
Los Angeles, 157, 204, 337 
San Francisco, 329 
Stevenson, Joseph A., 213 
Stewart, Lyman, 224, 344 
Stockton Presbytery, 157 
Stockton, 49, 81-4, 156, 335 
Sturge, Dr. E. A., 316 
Sutter’s Mill, 27 
Swett, John, Educator and His- 
torian, 246, 249 
Synod ae ny California (N. 
S.), 
Synod of. iene 76 
Synod of the Pacific (O. S.), 68- 


73, 269 


Taylor, William, 6, 48 
Thayer, Clarence A., 286 
Thomson, Herbert, 119 
Tonopah, Nev., 324 
Trumbull, R. J., 126, 272 
Tustin, 217 


Union of Churches, 151, 242 

University of California, 
256-263 

University Mound College, 252 

Upland, 237 


166, 


360 


Vacaville, 117 

Vallejo, 117 

Van Nuys, Ezra Allen, 330 

Veeder, P. V., 251 

Ventura, 142 

Vigilance Committee and the 
Church, 55, 106 

Virginia City, Nev., 116, 154, 321 

Visalia, 122 

Viscaino, Sebastian, 12 


Waddell, W. A., 214 

Wadsworth, E. B., 5, 6, 120 

Wadsworth, Guy W., 266, 336 

Walnut Creek, 175 

Walker, Hugh K., 208, 223, 224 

Walsworth, Edward B., 79, 86, 
248 

Washoe, Presbytery of, 154 

Webber, L. P., 148, 157 

Westminster, 147-8 

Westminster House, 263 

Whisler, George, 202 

White, A. F., 150, 209 


INDEX 


White, Lynn T., 127, 285 

Willey, Samuel G., 8, 51-6, 160, 
176, 248, 249, 256, 261 

Williams, Albert, 6, 42, 104-5, 
215, 247 

Wilmington, 141, 147, 214 

Wishart, John E., 285 

Women, Work of, 287-304 

Women’s Synodical Society for 
Home Missions, 296-303 

Work, Edgar W., 177 

Woodbridge, Sylvester, 
117, 125, 174, 248 

Woods, James, 6, 49-51, 79, 81- 
4, 88, 131 

Woods, James L., 6 

Wright, Mrs. C. S., 294 

Wyllie, Richard, 95 


39-42, 


Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
Ciation, 102, 166 

Young, William S., 9, 141, 216, 
217, 218, 229, 265, 266 

Yuma Massacre, 20 





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Se ee es 


nee 


b> 


44! 
= 





